Paolini outlasts Vekic in record-breaking Wimbledon semifinal

WIMBLEDON -- In the longest Wimbledon semifinal ever, No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini defeated Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6[8] in 2 hours and 51 minutes. Paolini, who battled from a set down and twice a break down in the decider, becomes the first Italian woman to reach the final at SW19 in the Open Era. On Saturday, Paolini will meet Barbora Krejcikova, who fought past Elena Rybakina in three sets. 

The previous longest Wimbledon semifinal had been Serena Williams's 6-7(4), 7-5, 8-6 defeat of Elena Dementieva in 2009, a contest which lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes.

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Fifteen years on, Paolini held her first match point at 5-4 in the third set and her second at 6-5 before edging Vekic on her third in a gripping super-tiebreak. The result was her third win in four meetings with Vekic, and she had needed to withstand a barrage of 42 winners from the Croatian to seal it.

The runner-up at Roland Garros a month ago to Iga Swiatek, Paolini has immediately backed up that run with her second major final. The 28-year-old is the first player since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach both the French Open and Wimbledon finals in the same season. Paolini is only the fifth player to accomplish that feat in the past 25 years following Stefanie Graf (1999), Serena Williams (2002, 2015, 2016), Venus Williams (2002) and Justine Henin (2006).

Having never won a tour-level match on grass before 2024, Paolini's record on the surface is now 8-1, with her sole loss coming to Daria Kasatkina in the Eastbourne semifinals two weeks ago. Currently at a career-high ranking of No.7, she is guaranteed to make her Top 5 debut next week.

How did the closing stages play out as the match went down to the wire?

It was a match that proved to be nerve-wracking even for neutrals, and the crowd's verdict was unanimous. As Paolini came out on top of the final rally, Centre Court rose as one to give both competitors a standing ovation. After nearly three hours of thrilling tennis, fans were still in raptures as they filed out: "What a match!" "Superb quality!" and "Should have been the final!" were among the overheard comments.

The closing stages had been the most tense. Vekic had led 3-1 in the third set, and broke again for 4-3, but Paolini had pegged her back both times. Vekic managed to find a service winner to stave off one match point down 5-4, but came out on the wrong end of a five-deuce tussle in the subsequent game as Paolini held for 6-5. On the final point of that game, Vekic used up her final Hawkeye challenge, and looked devastated as it showed her forehand had gone wide by inches.

But Vekic battled valiantly to the end. She saved another match point down 6-5 by firing a forehand winner to end one of the best rallies of the day, and stayed committed to aggression off that wing throughout a tiebreak in which neither player was ever more than two points in front of the other.

As the match went on, though, Paolini was able to find more and more ways to counter Vekic's pace, and was quick to sense opportunity for herself. Time and again, she tracked down Vekic's hardest shots, then turned defense into offense as soon as she could set up her forehand. In the end, it was the Vekic forehand that broke down on the two final points.

How did Paolini battle her way to the third set in the first place?

In her on-court interview, Paolini admitted that her back had been against the wall.

"She was playing unbelievable, she was hitting winners everywhere," she said. "I was struggling at the beginning. I told myself to fight for every ball and try to improve a little bit on the court, because I was serving really bad."

Indeed, Vekic's first-set dominance came down to the serve. The World No.37 dropped just three points in total behind her delivery, and was remorseless in punishing Paolini's second serve. Though Paolini won 11 out of 15 first-serve points, that dropped to just five out of 17 on her second delivery. Unable to get on the front foot consistently, Paolini found only five winners to Vekic's 12.

But the second set saw Paolini emerge with renewed intensity. She began to read Vekic's sneak drop shot strategy, and responded with pinpoint lobs and brilliant volleys. At 2-2, she fended off two break points with clutch serving.

The turning point came at 4-4. After a desperate defensive lob from Paolini (above), Vekic set up to slam the overhead winner home -- only to send it wide of the tramlines. Amid gasps from the crowd, Paolini went on to hold, and seized her opportunity in the next game by upping her aggression on return.

"This match I will remember forever," Paolini exclaimed in the on-court interview. She isn't the only one who will.

"It's tough to be positive": Facing the press afterwards, a disconsolate Vekic said that her team had told her she should be proud of herself -- both for her valiant run to a first Grand Slam semifinal and for the quality she showed in it.

"I don't know," she said. "It's tough to be positive right now. It was so close. I had a lot of chances.

"It was a tough, tough match. I believed that I could win until the end. She played some amazing tennis. All congrats to her. She definitely deserved it."

Had Vekic won the decider, she would have become the first woman in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final after winning five three-set matches. Having also reached the Bad Homburg final in the week before Wimbledon, she said that she had been physically struggling.

"I thought I was going to die in the third set," siad Vekic. "I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg. It was not easy out there, but I will recover. My tears were not because I was ... I mean, I don't know. I was more crying because I had so much pain, I didn't know how I could keep playing."

"In this moment, I'm living this": Asked what had surprised her most about herself over the past two months, Paolini replied that it wasn't just the results -- but how she's handling them.

"Two Grand Slam finals in a row was crazy to believe, I think, no?" she said. "I'm also surprising how at the moment, until now in this moment, I'm living this. I feel maybe Saturday I will be so nervous, I don't know. But I feel also relaxed. I'm the same person. I'm doing the same things. I'm surprised a little bit how I'm managing this.

"I don't want to say more because maybe Saturday I'm going to be shaking. I'm surprising by myself to live this with really relaxing mood, you know?"