After defeating Donna Vekic 2-6 6-4 7-6(8) in an iconic match, Jasmine Paolini made history as the first Italian woman to get to a Wimbledon final.
With her victory, Paolini became the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the French Open and Wimbledon finals in the same season. The match was the longest in Wimbledon history, lasting two hours and 51 minutes.
Paolini admitted that the game wasn’t an easy one to win. She stated: “Really tough today… She played unbelievable, she was hitting winners everywhere. I was struggling a little bit at the beginning, I was just repeating to myself to fight for every ball and to try to improve a little bit on the court. But I’m so happy with this win, I think this match I will remember forever.”
“I was trying to think about what to do on the court point by point and repeating to myself that there is no place better than here where to fight for every ball, every point. For a tennis player, this is the best place to play a match like this and really, thank you for cheering for me,” she added.
Highlights of the game
Vekic broke Paolini twice as she went out to a one-set lead. According to tennis writer Bastien Fachan, the athlete was vying to become the first Croatian woman to make it to a major slam final since Iva Majoli at the 1997 French Open. Paolini eventually found her game in the second set. Only in her last service game of the set did Paolini break Vekić, making it an extremely tense match.
The two exchanged two breakaways to tie the match at five points each in a third and decisive set that will go down in tennis history.
Vekic was then on the verge of triumph with a breakpoint, but Hawk-Eye showed that her shot was only three millimetres out, allowing Paolini to eventually hold serve. After breaking down in tears during the change of ends, Vekic managed to hold herself and force a tie break, which Paolini eventually won after nearly three hours of top-notch tennis.
Since entering the top 100 in 2019, Paolini has progressively moved up the tennis rankings. This February, she won the coveted WTA 1000 Dubai Tennis Championships, her second career title. At the French Open last month, she advanced to her maiden grand slam final but was defeated by Iga Swiatek.
Paolini is having the greatest season of her career by far at the age of 28.
Source: CNN