Krejcikova beats Paolini to win Wimbledon

Barbora Krejcikova held off Italian crowd favourite Jasmine Paolini to win the Wimbledon singles title on Saturday, coming through 6-2 2-6 6-4 on a sunlit Centre Court.

The Czech doubles specialist had dominated the opening set with a near-perfect display but was then rocked by a dazzling Paolini fightback which sent the showpiece into a decider.

A nervous third set swung Krejcikova's way when she broke serve at 3-3 and she went on to complete victory on her third match point, adding the Wimbledon title to the French Open crown she captured in 2021.

It was heartache for the popular Paolini who lost the French Open final a few weeks ago and was bidding to become the first Italian player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

Krejcikova, who also owns 10 doubles Grand Slam titles, including two at Wimbledon, is the latest in a long line of Czechs to win the singles at Wimbledon, following Marketa Vondrousova's triumph last year.

Krejcikova began the match in confident fashion, striking the ball sweetly on her way to a break of serve in the first game before holding for a 2-0 lead.

The 28-year-old from Brno was soon on the hunt for a double break but Paolini weathered some fierce ball-striking in her next service game to get herself on the scoreboard.

The Centre Court crowd came alive in the fourth game as Paolini showed unbelievable court coverage to stay in the point but to no avail as Krejcikova held for 3-1.

Paolini was chit-chatting to herself between points, trying to fire herself in the face of a Krejcikova onslaught but another dropped service game left her reeling.

Dominating the baseline exchanges with her extra power, Krejcikova pouched the opener in 35 minutes and Paolini disappeared off court, presumably for a deep breath.

The Italian returned with fire in her belly and immediately the momentum shifted as she seized on the first Krejcikova dip to move into a 3-0 lead with some fluent winners.

Suddenly it was Krejcikova who looked tight with consecutive double faults adding more fuel to the Paolini fire but the Czech steadied down to avoid slipping 4-0 behind.

It was all Paolini though in the second set as she rode a wave of fervent crowd support to take the final to a decider.

The momentum looked to be with Paolini but she wavered at 3-3 in the decider with a double fault handing over a break of serve. Krejcikova was rock-solid on serve as the title inched closer but looked consumed by nerves at 5-4.

Two match points came and went but she finally go the job done at the third attempt.

Factbox on Czech 31st seed Barbora Krejcikova, who beat Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini 6-2 2-6 6-4 in the Wimbledon final on Saturday to win her second Grand Slam title.

Age: 28

Country: Czech Republic

WTA ranking: 32

Seeding: 31

Grand Slam titles: 2 (2021 French Open, 2024 Wimbledon)

ROAD TO FINAL

First round: Veronika Kudermetova (Russia) 7-6(4) 6-7(1) 7-5

Second round: Katie Volynets (U.S.) 7-6(6) 7-6(5)

Third round: Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (Spain) 6-0 4-3 walkover

Round of 16: 11-Danielle Collins (U.S.) 7-5 6-3

Quarter-finals: 13-Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) 6-4 7-6(4)

Semifinals: 4-Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) 3-6 6-3 6-4

EARLY LIFE

Born in Brno, Krejcikova started playing tennis at the age of six.

CAREER TO DATE

* On the ITF Circuit, Krejcikova clinched 14 singles and 19 doubles titles.

* In 2013, she was ranked junior world number three while also winning the girls' doubles titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open with compatriot Katerina Siniakova.

* She made her WTA Tour debut in doubles at the 2014 Gastein Ladies, and her singles debut came at the Tournoi de Quebec in the same year.

* She was coached by late 1998 Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna from 2014 to 2017, the year Novotna died of cancer.

* She won her maiden WTA doubles title at 2015 Tournoi de Quebec and secured her first major doubles win at the 2018 French Open title with Siniakova. It was followed by another doubles triumph with Siniakova at 2018 Wimbledon, which helped her rise to the world number one doubles ranking that year.

* The following year, she won her first mix-doubles Grand Slam crown with American Rajeev Ram at the Australian Open.

* Aside from winning the mixed doubles for the third straight year at the Australian Open, 2021 was a highly successful year in her singles career as she won her first WTA singles title at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, a day before the French Open started.

* That year, she also completed the first singles and doubles sweep at the French Open since Mary Pierce in 2000. Her win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the 2021 Roland-Garros final saw her break into the top 15 WTA singles rankings for the first time.

* Having also won the 2021 WTA Finals and a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in women's doubles, both partnering with Siniakova, she ended the 2021 season as world number five in singles and as number two in doubles.

* The next year, she and Siniakova completed a career Golden Slam in doubles after securing the U.S. Open while also achieving a career-high ranking of world number two in singles.

* Doubles success followed in 2023 as she won the Australian Open doubles title with Siniakova.

* Despite a run of six defeats in eight singles matches before heading into Wimbledon, she won the grasscourt slam by beating French Open runner-up Paolini, also 28, in the final. That triumph will also return her to the top 10 in singles.