This is a final that we would not have bet a kopeck on before the start of the competition. After the eliminations of Iga Swiatek in the third round and Elena Rybakina in the semi-final, the Italian Jasmine Paolini (7th) and the Czech Barbora Krejcikova (32nd) created a surprise by reaching their very first Wimbledon final. If the match seemed rather open on paper, it was finally the Czech who ended up winning (6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in 1h56 of play).
In a season truncated by injuries, sick and then injured in the back, Krejcikova was only able to play ten matches (for three victories) between February and June, this consecration at Wimbledon crowns the journey of a fighter who would surely gain from being talked about more often. She becomes, with Simona Halep, one of the two current players to have won a title at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
The London crowd thought for a moment that they were in for a demonstration this Saturday afternoon on the central court of the All England Club. With an opening break at the start of the match, Barbora Krejcikova quickly imposed her opponent with her powerful baseline shots. On each short ball, the seven-time Grand Slam doubles winner pounded the Italian with her topspin forehand. Opposite, the winner of the last WTA 1000 in Dubai, too far from her baseline, never managed to take control of the game. In barely 35 minutes, the world number 32 smoothly wrapped up the first set 6-2.
But, five weeks after her expeditious defeat in the Roland-Garros final against the queen of clay, Iga Swiatek, Jasmine Paolini seemed this time to want to leave with the honors. From the first game of the second set, the Italian came back with more aggression and more intention while the Czech was less mobile. More on her baseline, it was now the world number 7 who took the game into her own hands and broke in turn to lead 2-0.
Freed, the last Roland finalist then let loose a little more of her shots like this magnificent winning return at 4-1. And she also won the second set 6-2. While she had never won a single match on the London grass before this edition, Jasmine Paolini, imperial on serve (88% of points won on her first serve) began to dream of a first Grand Slam title.
Experience finally won out
But there you have it, facing Paolini, and despite their same age (28 years old), Krejcikova had experience of major finals. Already winner of Roland-Garros in 2021, the world number 32 has a record that includes, in doubles, a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics (2021) and all possible Grand Slam titles in doubles (seven in total). A tone lower than her opponent in the game, at the start of the last set, the Czech managed to remain patient and wait for the Italian’s mistakes to break.
On Paolini’s first double fault of the match at 3-3, the native of Tuscany conceded the break and let the Czech get closer to a second Grand Slam title. And it was not the two break points to equalize at 5-5 that would worry the native of Brno who at 28 becomes the new queen of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. She succeeds another Czech, Marketa Vondrousova, winner of Wimbledon last year.
“I can’t find the words. This is the best day of my tennis career,” explained an emotional Barbora Krejcikova at the end of the match. “I want to congratulate Jasmine Paolini and her team. She fights for every ball and she has achieved something incredible over the last two weeks. I am so happy to have won. I don’t think anyone around me really believed it. Even I have a hard time believing it.”
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