Paolini battles past Vekic in longest women’s semi-final in Wimbledon history
Having begun the season as world No 29, the Italian will break into the world’s top 5 for the first time on Monday
Jasmine Paolini, Wimbledon 2024
Image Credit: Action Plus / Panoramic
Jasmine Paolini‘s incredible 2024 season continued on Thursday as the 28-year-old Italian battled past Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the longest women’s semi-final in Wimbledon‘s history. Three weeks after reaching her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, Paolini finds herself in her second – this time at the oldest and prestigious tennis tournament in the world.
At two hours and 51 minutes, the 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) win for Paolini goes down as the longest women’s semi-final in Wimbledon history, beating the previous record which was the Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva semi-final in 2009.
Vekic starts the match strong before Paolini fights back
It was the 28-year-old Vekic, playing in her first career Grand Slam semi-final, who started the match on a strong note, winning four games in a row from 2-2 to win the first set 6-2.
For much of the second set, Vekic seemed like she was in control, earning three break points but failed to establish a clear lead.
Paolini, who had won two of their three previous meetings on tour, hung tough and after holding for 5-4 in the second set, the Italian broke Vekic for the first time on only her second break point opportunity in the match to win it 6-4 and send the match into a decider.
Dramatic topsy-turvy third set gets decided in a tiebreaker
In the final set, it was Vekic, who established an early lead, breaking in the first game to go up 2-0. Paolini fought back to level the set at 3-3 only to see her serve get broken once again. But the Italian fought back a second time in the decider to even the set at 4 games apiece.
As the match went down to the wire, Paolini seemed fresher of the two players while Vekic seemed to be digging deep into her last reserves.
After Paolini held for 5-4, she earned her first matchpoint on the Vekic serve in the 10th game, which the Croatian saved and held for 5-5. Vekic then earned two break points on the Paolini serve in the 11th game but the Italian held on to her serve. A second match point for Paolini was also saved by Vekic in the 12th game and the match moved into a 10-point tiebreaker to decide who would play Saturday’s final.
Vekic got an early mini-break again, going up 3-1 but Paolini fought back to 3-3. From there, the two players went toe-to-toe, producing some of the best tennis in the most crucial part of the match. At 9-8, Paolini earned her third match point and this time, she closed out the match to complete the historic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) win.
Paolini, who had never won a WTA level match on grass prior to this year, will face off against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina or 2021 Roland-Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova in the final. Regardless of the result, the Italian, who started the season at No 29 in the world, will make her top 5 debut in the rankings on Monday.
The win also makes Paolini the first female player to reach the French Open and Wimbledon final in the same year since Serena Williams did the same in 2016.
Vekic is projected to climb to No 21 in the rankings, just two spots off her career-best ranking of No 19.
