Let’s be honest: It’s been a strange Wimbledon, filled with last-minute absences; even later-minute sudden injuries, retirements, and walkovers; and a host of upsets. Nobody, but nobody, predicted this women’s final, which pits 31st-seeded Czechian doubles specialist Barbora Krejčíkova against the seventh-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy. (They play at 9 a.m. ET tomorrow.) Whoever wins, we will see—for the eighth straight year—a new Wimbledon women’s singles champion.
For Paolini, it’s been the summer of her career, if not her life. Before last month, she hadn’t won a single match on grass, and here she is, playing for the Wimbledon title. She also reached the final at the French Open mere weeks ago, and while Paolini lost that match, against Iga Swiatek, quite badly, the experience of playing on the sport’s biggest stage should be a great boon to her here—as should her gutsy, thrilling, come-from-behind semifinal victory over Donna Vekić in a third-set tiebreak. (When a reporter asked her yesterday what she’d say if someone told her a year ago that she’d reach both the French and Wimbledon finals in 2024, Paolini responded: “You are crazy, I would say.” Indeed, she is the first woman to manage that feat since Serena Williams did it in 2016.)
Krejčíkova already has a major singles title under her belt—she won the French in 2021—along with 10 major doubles titles, and was ranked as high as second in the world in recent years before she was beset by a series of arm, elbow, and wrist injuries. If there were any doubts about her match readiness, though, they were answered early on at Wimbledon, with her impressive victories over Danielle Collins, Jelena Ostapenko, and especially fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, in the semifinals.
