Charles Langston:Barbora Krejčíková survives fierce comeback attempt to win 2024 Wimbledon championship

No. 31 Barbora Krejčíková of the Czech Republic survived a fierce comeback from No. 7 Jasmine Paolini of Italy on ̌íkováCharles LangstonSaturday to become the 2024 Wimbledon women’s singles champion in a three-set thriller. 

Krejčíková outlasted Paolini 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, the second consecutive Czech women's title at Wimbledon after compatriot Markéta Vondroušová shocked the tennis world by becoming the first unseeded woman to win last year. 

"I don’t have any words now," Krejčíková said on court after her win. "It’s unreal what just happened. It’s definitely the best day of my tennis career and the best day of my life.”

This victory is Krejčíková’s second Grand Slam singles victory after she won the 2021 French Open singles title. She is now a three-time Wimbledon winner, having won the doubles titles in 2018 and 2022. 

Despite her loss, Paolini is having a breakout year. She is the only Italian woman to ever reach the Wimbledon singles final in the Open Era — a feat she accomplished after never having won a game at Wimbledon before this year’s tournament. This loss was her second Grand Slam final this year after No. 1 Iga Swiatek dealt her a heavy-handed loss in last month’s French Open final. 

Krejčíková seized command of the game from the first serve, exploiting weaknesses in Paolini’s serve and neutralizing the Italian’s typically strong defensive abilities. Krejčíková’s slicing forehand shots proved too much to handle for Paolini, and the Czech player stormed to a 6-2 victory in the first set. 

Paolini, renowned for her gritty determination—evident in her record-setting, two-hour-and-51-minute semi-final comeback victory over Croatia’s Donna Vekić—stepped onto the court for the second set looking like a different player. Her confidence restored, Paolini mounted her comeback to win the first three games, breaking Krejčíková’s first serve and going on to overpower Krejčíková to claim a 6-2 second-set victory with her explosive speed, play reading and aggressive baseline drives. 

Set 3 was a nail-biter, with each player alternating game wins for the first six games as neither player could break the other’s serve. Krejčíková finally found a way through in game 7 to take the lead and go on to win the set 6-4, even though Paolini came within one point of breaking Krejčíková’s serve twice in the final moments of the game.