Barbora Krejcikova will face Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon final as a new women’s champion will lift the Venus Rosewater Dish on Saturday afternoon after a stunning day of semi-finals. Both matches went the distance, in the first time in 20 years both women’s semi-finals went to three sets.
Krejcikova, the former French Open winner, stunned title favourite Elena Rybakina in a three-set comeback to reach her first Wimbledon singles final. Rybakina, the champion in 2022, looked to be cruising towards the final but Krejcikova turned the match around. The 28-year-old Czech had never previously gone beyond the fourth round at the All England Club.
That’s still a comparatively starry Wimbledon resume compared to Paolini, who had never even won a match on grass until this summer, but who is now the first Italian woman to reach a final at SW19. This year’s French Open runner-up achieved that feat by beating Donna Vekic in a match that also made history on Thursday: as the longest-ever women’s semi-final at Wimbledon.
Vekic was left in tears during a tense game late in the third set, before Paolini won an epic tiebreak to complete a comeback victory.
Follow all the latest scores and match updates from Wimbledon below:
