Czech Barbora Krejcikova, ranked 32nd in the world, won her first Wimbledon title against Italian Jasmine Paolini (6-2, 2-6, 6-4) this Saturday, July 13. The 28-year-old won her second Grand Slam title after her success at Roland-Garros in 2021 and will move up to 10th place in the ATP rankings on July 15.
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Krejcikova became the first Czech player to win two Grand Slam singles titles at two different Majors. Paolini, the first Italian to reach a Wimbledon final, is the fifth player since 1999 and the first since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in a row. She will become world number 5 on July 15, her best ranking, despite her second straight defeat in the final after her big loss to Poland’s Iga Swiatek on June 8 in Paris.
This Saturday in the first set, Krejcikova immediately took control of the match with a confirmed break to lead 2-0. At 0/30 on her second serve, Paolini finally seemed to find the beginnings of a solution: she scored three points in a row, but still had to save two break points before finally saving her serve.
It was only a postponement since the Czech managed the double break a little later to lead 5-1. With the strong support of the crowd, Paolini hung on but was unable to make up the deficit in this first set where she was completely dominated.
Krejcikova has a bad patch in the second set
Surprisingly, it was Paolini who took the lead early in the second set with a break to pull away 3-0. Krejcikova then fell into a form of apathy that the Italian took full advantage of. Struggling on her serve, the Czech tried at times to become more aggressive, to change rhythm and to go to the net, but made too many errors and Paolini was able to equalize at one set all on a double break.
The Italian therefore started the decisive set on her serve to take the lead. But she cracked in the seventh game by offering the break to her opponent on a double fault. Krejcikova then found her first serve and won her white serve to confirm 5-3 and put Paolini under high pressure.
Paolini held her serve to force Krejcikova to serve for the title, which she did by concluding on her third match point having saved two break points at the end of a very tight duel between the two players.