Who will lift the Venus Rosewater Dish on Saturday at Wimbledon? World No.7 Jasmine Paolini has charmed a Grand Slam crowd once again with her infectious energy and gritty game to make her second straight major final.

Across the net will be former No.2 Barbora Krejcikova, who stunned No.4 Elena Rybakina in the semifinals to give herself a chance at a second Grand Slam title. 

Wimbledon 2024: Scores | Draws | Order of play

Here's what you need to know ahead of Saturday's showdown:

When is the women's singles final?

The women's singles final will be played at the All England Club on Saturday, July 13 at 2 p.m. (9 a.m. ET):

London is on British Summer Time (GMT +1). 

What are the points and prize money at stake?

Wimbledon is the third Grand Slam of the season. By making the final, Paolini and Krejcikova have assured themselves 1,300 points and £1,400,000

The winner will earn 2,000 points and £2,700,000.

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Rankings projections: By making her second straight Slam final, Paolini will make her Top 5 debut on the PIF WTA Rankings on Monday. She will be the highest ranked Italian since Sara Errani in 2013. Paolini is closing in on becoming the highest ranked Italian woman in the history of the Hologic WTA Tour, a position currently held by Francesca Schiavone, who reached No.4 in 2011.

Into her second major final and first Hologic WTA Tour final of the season, Krejcikova is guaranteed to leave SW19 back inside the Top 20. If she wins her second Grand Slam title, she will return to the Top 10.

Race to the Finals: The Top 8 players on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals will qualify for the WTA Finals at the end of the season. Paolini has already assured herself a spot at No.3 behind No.1 Iga Swiatek and No.2 Rybakina. Snagging her first major title would move her up to No.2. 

Krejcikova came into the tournament outside the Top 50 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals. She will move up to No.12 by making the final and could move inside the Top 8 at No.7 with the title.

How did Paolini and Krejcikova get here?

Semifinal reports: Paolini holds off Vekic | Krejcikova stuns Rybakina

Paolini, 28, became the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to make the finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season, underlining the 28-year-old Italian's breakout season.

Paolini came into this year's grass season having never won a tour-level main-draw match on grass, including an 0-3 record at Wimbledon. She snapped her grass-court drought the week before Wimbledon by making the semifinals at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne. After earning her first Wimbledon win over Sara Sorribes Tormo, Paolini was off at the races. 

She beat Greet Minnen and Bianca Andreescu before playing one of the standout matches of the tournament against Madison Keys in the Round of 16. The American was forced to retire deep in the third set due to injury, but Paolini made good use of her luck. She tallied her first win in four tries over Emma Navarro in the quarterfinals before coming through the longest women's semifinal ever at Wimbledon, defeating Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) on Thursday.

Krejcikova, also 28, may have made a name for herself three years ago on the clay in Paris, but grass has been the perfect prescription for the Czech's sputtering comeback from injury. She began the 2024 season well, making her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in two years at the Australian Open, but a back injury and illness forced her to skip the first four WTA 1000 events of the year. 

Krejcikova returned from her two-month layoff at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and went 0-4 until the Hologic WTA Tour turned to grass last month. She snapped that streak with a win over Daria Saville in the first round of Birmingham, where she was a finalist the year before.

At Wimbledon, Krejcikova survived a tough opening round against Veronika Kudermetova, winning 7-6(4), 6-7(1), 7-5, and then ran through her next four matches. After straight-set wins over Katie Volynets, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, No.11 Danielle Collins and No.14 Jelena Ostapenko, Krejcikova came from a set down to stun No.4 and 2022 champion Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to make her first final of the season.

What milestones are at stake on Saturday? 

Paolini is a win away from delivering Italy its first Wimbledon champion. No Italian woman had ever made it past the quarterfinals at SW19. She is bidding to win her third Hologic WTA title, second of the season after winning Dubai, and first Grand Slam. 

Paolini is the first Italian woman in the Open Era to reach the final at two different Grand Slam events.

In the Open Era, only five women have lost both the French Open and Wimbledon finals in the same year: Evonne Goolagong (1972), Chris Evert (1973 and 1984), Olga Morozova (1974), Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (1995 and 1996) and Venus Williams (2002). 

A win over Krejcikova would extend her tour-leading mark of Grand Slam main-draw wins this season to 16. She would become the first player in the Open Era to win the Wimbledon singles title after being winless at the tournament. She could become the fourth player since 2000 to win a major title having been previously winless at that event, after Jelena Ostapenko (2017 French Open), Bianca Andreescu (2019 US Open) and Emma Raducanu (2021 US Open). 

Either Paolini or Krejcikova will become the sixth woman in the Open Era to win Wimbledon after turning 28, joining Ann Jones (1969), Virginia Wade (1977), Jana Novotna (1998), Marion Bartoli (2013) and Angelique Kerber 2018.

Krejcikova is hoping to deliver a Czech champion for the second straight year, after Marketa Vondrousova's run to the title last year and expand the list of Czech champions at Wimbledon to four, joining her mentor Jana Novotna, Petra Kvitova and Vondrousova. But a victory would set Krejcikova apart -- she would become the first Czech woman to win titles at different Grand Slams.

She is bidding to win her eighth career singles title, the first of the season, and second Grand Slam title after winning 2021 Roland Garros.

Krejcikova's win over Rybakina in the semifinals snapped a four-match losing streak to Top 10 opponents. A win over Paolini would give her back-to-back wins over Top 10 opponents for the first time since her title run at Dubai 2023. And it would boost her back in the Top 10. 

How do they stack up?

Head to Head

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Paolini and Krejcikova will face each other for the first time in a tour-level main-draw match on Saturday. In their only meeting at any level, Krejcikova dropped just three games to the Italian in qualifying at the 2018 Australian Open. Neither player had cracked the Top 100 yet. 

On recent form, Paolini goes into her second major final as the favorite. She has won more Grand Slam matches than anyone on tour this season (15). Of her eight losses this year, only two have come to players ranked outside the Top 30. 

But Krejcikova has been here before. She knows what it takes to win a Grand Slam final and she's actually done it twice before on Centre Court, winning the doubles with Katerina Siniakova in 2018 and 2022. And if there's one thing Krejcikova's streaky career has taught us, it's that when she gets on a roll, she can be unstoppable. 

Champions Reel: How Barbora Krejcikova won Dubai 2023

Krejcikova's win over Rybakina was her first since her title run at Dubai in 2023. Ranked No.30, she knocked out four Top 10 players, including the World No.1, No.2 and No.3 to win the title. The Czech has a proven record of going from famine to feast in the blink of an eye. 

What are they saying? 

Paolini: "Two Grand Slam finals in a row was crazy to believe, I think, no? I'm also surprised 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.

"Yeah, I don't know. 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. Yeah, I'm surprised by myself to live this with a really relaxing mood."

WTA Insider Podcast: Paolini talks pizza and Poland in Dubai

Krejcikova: "Before the tournament, I had a tough period. I just told myself that I will try to enjoy everything more. Yeah, that I kind of did a lot of good achievements already, that I just want to have more fun than being in more stress about tennis and about the performances.

"In the end so far I think I was very, very successful in doing that. I'm definitely enjoying this moment much more than I did in Paris, which was more stressful for me."

WTA Insider Podcast: Krejcikova plots her comeback from injury

Paolini: "I'm trying to live in the present and to enjoy what I'm doing and don't forget where I am. I think it's a really privileged position, and I have to keep that in focus. Also, sometimes I'm trying to say to myself, 'OK, jokes [aside], enjoy, but stay also focused and think about what you have to do to step on court and give the 100% that you have.' It's a balance, I think, between enjoying and be focused."

Krejcikova: "I never really imagined that in four weeks I could reach a Wimbledon final, that I can be a different player. But I'm super happy that I am, that I was able to fight through everything."

Paolini: "[Pennetta, Schiavone, Vinci and Errani] they inspiring me so much. But I don't want to compare too much because I'm writing my own story, my own career. But I remember the Grand Slam finals that they made.

"I think it's really important for also the next generation to have people that can do great things. They can show you that it's possible. That's really important I think."