Wimbledon: Paolini fights back from the brink and advances to QFs as Keys retires due to injury
The Italian will play the winner of the match between No 19 seed Emma Navarro and second seed Coco Gauff in the last eight
Jasmine Paolini, Wimbledon 2024
Image Credit: Action Plus / Panoramic
French Open finalist Jasmine Paolini continued her incredible summer by reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon as American Madison Keys was forced to retire from their thrilling fourth round clash at 6-3, 6-7, 5-5 in the deciding set.
Paolini, the No 7 seed, got off to a flying start by winning the first set 6-3 before Keys began to find her range. The 12th-seeded American jumped to a 5-1 lead in the second and held to set points in the seventh game only to see Paolini fight back to force a second set tiebreak.
Paolini stood two points away from a straight sets win at 5-5 in the tiebreak but Keys managed to swing it her way and force a deciding set.
Keys led 5-2 in the final set before injuring her left leg
Keys jumped off to another early lead in the third set, going up a double break to lead 5-2. Paolini then took one break back to narrow the gap to 5-3. In the ninth game, the American injured her left leg and before she served for the match at 5-4, Keys called for a medical timeout.
The world No 13 went off the court and came back with a heavily bandaged left thigh. The injury left her unable to put much weight on her left leg. With Keys’ serve and movement severely impacted by the injury, Paolini broke back once again for 5-5 even as the American was in tears.
Two points into the 11th game of the final set, Keys walked to the umpire to announce that she was unable to continue and sent Paolini into her first Wimbledon quarter-final, walking off the court in tears to a huge round of applause from the Court 1 crowd.
The Italian will play the winner of the match between second seed Coco Gauff and No 19 seed Emma Navarro next. She becomes the first woman from her country to reach the quarter-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.
Ahead of her win today, Paolini, who had never won a WTA main draw match on grass until this year, defeated Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo (7-5, 6-3), Belgian Greet Minnen (7-6 (5), 6-2) and Canadian Bianca Andreescu (7-6 (4), 6-1).
Keys had defeated Italian Martina Trevisan (6-4, 7-6 (4)), Chinese Yafan Wang (6-2, 6-2) and Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, the No 18 seed (6-4, 6-3) earlier in the tournament.
Wimbledon (Grand Slam), other round of 16 matches (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 50,000,000):
- Elina Svitolina vs. Xinyu Wang
- Elena Rybakina vs. Anna Kalinskaya
- Danielle Collins vs. Barbora Krejcikova
- Yulia Putintseva vs. Jelena Ostapenko
- Emma Navarro vs. Coco Gauff
- Lulu Sun vs. Emma Raducanu
- Paula Badosa vs. Donna Vekic
