Jasmine Paolini scripted history after storming into the women's singles final of Wimbledon 2024 on Thursday, July 11. The world no.7 Paolini defeated Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 at the All England Club in London to become the first Italian woman to enter the Wimbledon singles final.
The 28-year-old Italian also reached the finals of the women's singles and doubles events at the French Open last month and continued her dream run with back-to-back Grand Slam finals. Paolini will be facing the winner of the second semi-final between the world no.4 Elena Rybakina and the former Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova in the women's singles final on Saturday.
After dropping the opening set, Paolini made a stunning comeback to take the second set by 6-4. She was trailing 1-3 in the decider set but produced a stellar performance to take the match to the tie-breaker where she emerged victorious despite trailing two times.
"She was playing unbelievable, she was hitting winners everywhere," James Paolini said in the post-match talk. "I was struggling at the beginning. I told myself to fight for every ball and try to improve a little bit on the court because I was serving really bad."
The thrilling and mouth-watering match lasted for two hours 51 minutes, the longest-ever women's semifinal on Centre Court, as fans witnessed one of the best clashes in women's singles in the Open Era. The previous longest semi-final match at Wimbledon was Serena Williams's 6-7, 7-5, 8-6 loss to Elena Dementieva, a game which lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes in 2009.
Having never won a WTA tour game on grass before 2024, Paolini became the only fifth woman tennis player and first in the last eight years to reach the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season.
