Paolini wins Wimbledon’s longest-ever women’s semi-final

LONDON (AP):

JASMINE PAOLINI kept coming back, kept coming back, kept coming back against Donna Vekic in what would become the longest Wimbledon women’s semi-final on record – after dropping the opening set, after being two games from defeat in each of the last two sets, after twice trailing by a break in the third.

And all the while, this is what Paolini kept telling herself yesterday: “Try, point by point” and “Fight for every ball.”

Paolini had never won a match at the All England Club until last week and now will participate in her second consecutive Grand Slam final, thanks to a rollicking 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) victory over the unseeded Vekic across two hours, 51 minutes on Centre Court.

“This match,” said the number-seven-seeded Paolini, who faces number-31 Barbora Krejcikova for the title, “I will remember forever.”

As will many of the thousands who were present or the millions watching on TV.

“It was,” Paolini said, “a rollercoaster of emotions.”

The same could be said of the second semi-final, which lasted 44 fewer minutes but contained its own share of plot twists as 2021 French Open champion Krejcikova came back to eliminate 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Whoever wins on Saturday will be the eighth woman to leave the All England Club with the title in the past eight editions of the tournament.

Krejcikova trailed 4-0 at the start, reeled off four of five games to take the second set, then earned the pivotal break to move ahead 5-3 in the third against Rybakina, who entered the day with a 19-2 career mark at the All England Club.

“During the second set, somewhere in the middle, I was getting my momentum,” Krejcikova said. “And when I broke her, I started to be in a zone – and I didn’t want to leave the zone.”

Still, it couldn’t approach the drama produced by Paolini and Vekic.

Consider: Vekic, making her debut in a Slam semi-final, ended up claiming more points (118-111), delivering more winners (42-26), and breaking serve more often (4-3).

“She was hitting winners everywhere,” Paolini said.

But Paolini never went away, eventually converting her third match point when Vekic sent a forehand wide. This showing on the grass courts at Wimbledon follows Paolini’s runner-up finish to Iga Swiatek on the red clay at the French Open last month.

Paolini, a 28-year-old from Italy, is the first woman to get to the title matches at Roland Garros and the All England Club in the same season since Serena Williams in 2016.