Barbora Krejcikova secured her second Grand Slam singles title, defeating Jasmine Paolini 6-2-, 2-6, 6-4 on Saturday at Wimbledon.
After a wobbly second set, Krejcikova regained her composure and played a nearly flawless final set. After Paolini fought off two match points, Krejcikova hit a deep, unreturnable serve — and raised her arms in victory after 1 hour and 56 minutes.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Krejcikova, the 31st of the 32 seeded players in the main draw, is the consummate closer.
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When she’s healthy and reaches the last stage of the big tournaments, Krejcikova finds a way to win. She’s now won an astounding 12 of 13 major finals — 2-0 in singles, 3-0 in mixed doubles and 7-for-8 in doubles. And then there’s that Olympic doubles gold medal in Tokyo.
Hard to believe, but a back injury this season limited Krejcikova to a 7-9 record entering this tournament — the same number of wins she tallied at Wimbledon in her run to the title.
After the first question in her on-court interview, Krejcikova took a deep, deep breath.
“I don’t have any words,” she said. “It’s unbelievable what just happened. The best day of my tennis career — and the best day of my life.
“It’s super difficult to explain what I’m feeling right now.”
Krejcikova is the fourth Czech player to win the women’s title at Wimbledon in the Open Era after her one-time mentor Jana Novotna, Petra Kvitova and last year’s champion Marketa Vondrousova.
To succeed on grass, Krejcikova knew she had to amp up her consistent clay game. That more aggressive attitude could be seen in the final numbers — she had 28 winners and 37 unforced errors.
This was a matchup with little historic context. These 28-year-olds born three weeks apart had only played once — in the first round of qualifying at the 2018 Australian Open — a match Krejcikova won easily.
Krejcikova won 10 of the first 11 points, breaking Paolini’s serve to open the match with a smooth forehand winner. She would break the Italian’s serve twice in the 35-minute first set and not face a break point herself. Krejcikova had 10 winners, mirrored by Paolini’s 10 unforced errors.
The way it was playing out, it seemed Krejcikova would cruise to a straight-sets victory. But the second set, very quickly, went Paolini’s way. She converted her first break point of the match to take a 2-0 lead and would break Krejcikova twice….