By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) – Barbora Krejcikova held off Italian crowd favourite Jasmine Paolini to win the Wimbledon singles title on Saturday, coming through 6-2 2-6 6-4 on a sunlit Centre Court.
The Czech doubles specialist had dominated the opening set with a near-perfect display but was then rocked by a dazzling Paolini fightback which sent the showpiece into a decider.
A nervous third set swung Krejcikova’s way when she broke serve at 3-3 and she went on to complete victory on her third match point, adding the Wimbledon title to the French Open crown she captured in 2021.
It was heartache for the popular Paolini who lost the French Open final a few weeks ago and was bidding to become the first Italian player to win a Wimbledon singles title.
Krejcikova, who also owns 10 doubles Grand Slam titles, including two at Wimbledon, is the latest in a long line of Czechs to win the singles at Wimbledon, following Marketa Vondrousova’s triumph last year.
Krejcikova began the match in confident fashion, striking the ball sweetly on her way to a break of serve in the first game before holding for a 2-0 lead.
The 28-year-old from Brno was soon on the hunt for a double break but Paolini weathered some fierce ball-striking in her next service game to get herself on the scoreboard.
The Centre Court crowd came alive in the fourth game as Paolini showed unbelievable court coverage to stay in the point but to no avail as Krejcikova held for 3-1.
Paolini was chit-chatting to herself between points, trying to fire herself in the face of a Krejcikova onslaught but another dropped service game left her reeling.
Dominating the baseline exchanges with her extra power, Krejcikova pouched the opener in 35 minutes and Paolini disappeared off court, presumably for a deep breath.
The Italian returned with fire in her belly and immediately the momentum shifted as she seized on the first Krejcikova dip to move into a 3-0 lead with some fluent winners.
Suddenly it was Krejcikova who looked tight with consecutive double faults adding more fuel to the Paolini fire but the Czech steadied down to avoid slipping 4-0 behind.
It was all Paolini though in the second set as she rode a wave of fervent crowd support to take the final to a decider.
The momentum looked to be with Paolini but she wavered at 3-3 in the decider with a double fault handing over a break of serve. Krejcikova was rock-solid on serve as the title inched closer but looked consumed by nerves at 5-4.
Two match points came and went but she finally go the job done at the third attempt.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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