By Canadian Press

Barbora Krejcikova wins Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam trophy by beating Jasmine Paolini

Jul 13, 2024 | 9:23 AM

LONDON (AP) — Barbora Krejcikova won Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam title with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Jasmine Paolini in the final on Saturday.

Krejcikova is a 28-year-old from the Czech Republic who adds this trophy to her championship at the French Open in 2021.

She was unseeded in Paris back then and was only the 31st of 32 seeds at the All England Club after illness and a back injury this season limited her to a 7-9 record entering this tournament.

Krejcikova is the eighth woman to leave Wimbledon as the champion in the past eight editions of the event. Last year’s champion also is from the Czech Republic: unseeded Marketa Vondrousova, who lost in the first round last week.

The seventh-seeded Paolini was the runner-up at the French Open last month and is the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to get to the finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season.

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Both finalists Saturday took turns being charge of the run of play.

Playing coolly and efficiently — seemingly effortlessly — Krejcikova claimed 10 of the first 11 points and quickly owned a double-break lead at 5-1.

As much as the crowd, likely because of a desire to see a more competitive contest, pulled loudly for Paolini, yelling “Forza!” (“Let’s go!”) the way she often does or “Calma!” (“Be calm!”), Krejcikova never wavered.

She has net skills, to be sure — that’s part of why she has won seven Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, including two at Wimbledon — but Krejcikova mainly was content to stay back at the baseline, simply delivering one smooth groundstroke after another to its appointed spot and getting the better of the lengthiest exchanges.

There really was no need for anything other than Plan A in the early going in front of a Centre Court crowd that included actors Tom Cruise, Kate Beckinsale and Hugh Jackman.

Paolini did try to shake things up a bit, with the occasional serve-and-volley rush forward or drop shot, but she couldn’t solve Krejcikova. Not yet, anyway.

After the lopsided first set, Paolini went to the locker room. She emerged a different player, one who no longer looked like someone burdened by residual fatigue from the longest women’s semifinal in Wimbledon history, her 2-hour, 51-minute win over Donna Vekic on Thursday.

Paolini had come back from dropping the first set in that one, so she knew she had it in her. And she began the second set against Krejcikova in style, delivering deep groundstrokes and grabbing a 3-0 advantage.

Once the match was tied at a set apiece, it was Krejcikova who left the court to try to recalibrate.

Her shots that suddenly went so awry in the match’s middle — after four unforced errors in the first set, she made 14 in the second — were back to being crisp and clean.

At 3-all in the deciding set, it was Paolini who faltered, double-faulting for the only time all afternoon to get broken.

Krejcikova then held at love for 5-3, but when she served for the championship, things got a little tougher.

She needed to save a pair of break points and required three match points to get across the finish line, winning when Paolini missed a backhand.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press