While men’s tennis has been dominated by a few players over the last two decades, the women’s game has been much more wide open.
Nothing underscored that more than Barbora Krejčíková winning the Wimbledon title on Saturday.
The 28-year-old Czech and No. 31 seed became the eighth different woman to win Wimbledon in the last eight years when she beat No. 7 Jasmine Paolini, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, in the ladies final.
“I think nobody really believes it,” she said. “Nobody believes that I got to the final. And nobody’s gonna believe that I won Wimbledon.
It was the second major singles title for Krejčíková, who also won Roland Garros in 2021. She has been primarily a doubles specialist in her career and owns 10 Grand Slam titles in women’s and mixed doubles. She is now 12-3 in all Grand Slam finals.
She is the fifth Czech women’s champion following Martina Navratilova (who won it nine times), Jana Novotna, Petra Kvitova (twice) and last year’s winner Marketa Vondrousova.
The winner gets £2.7 million, or just over $3.4 million, while the runner-up receives £1.4 million, or close to $1.8 million.
The diminutive Paolini had a 4-16 record in majors entering 2024 but was 15-2 entering the Wimbledon final after enjoying a remarkable turnaround this season. She came out of nowhere to reach the Roland Garros final last month before losing to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and followed that up by becoming the first Italian woman in the Wimbledon final.
“The last two months have been crazy for me,” she said. “I want to thank my team and family. They always support me and believe in me. Without them I wouldn’t be here. Thank you very much. The crowd has been amazing these two weeks. I received a lot of support. Just Incredible to feel the love from them. I enjoyed so much.”
Paolini was coming off the longest women’s semifinal ever of nearly three hours before prevailing over Donna Vekic in a third-set tiebreak.
Krejčíková, meantime, beat 2022 champ Elena Rybakina in three sets in her semifinal.
After getting an early break in the first game, Krejčíková earned a second for 4-1 when Paolini netted a two-hand backhand.
Krejčíková took the first set in 35 minutes, capturing it with a forehand winner that Paolini returned into the net. She only missed two first serves in the set.
With the crowd rooting the Italian on, Paolini became more assertive to start the second set and broke for a 2-0 lead when Krejčíková netted a backhand on double-break point.
Paolini broke to take the second set when Krejčíková hit a forehand wide on break point.
“I truly believe she let Paolini back in this match…and then Paolini got the belief back,” Chrissie Evert said on ESPN.
But Krejčíková righted the ship in the third and broke Paolini for 4-3 when the Italian double-faulted.
Serving on her third championship point, Krejčíková banged a service winner to become Wimbledon champion.
In Sunday’s men’s final, two former champions will battle it out in a rematch of last year’s epic when defending champion Carlos Alcaraz meets 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic. Alcaraz won the title a year ago in five sets.
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