WTA WIMBLEDON. By Emiliano Naftali
Jasmine Paolini achieved a remarkable comeback at Wimbledon, overturning a set deficit to defeat a formidable Donna Vekic with scores of 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8).
The No. 7 seed found herself trailing by a break twice in the final set but surged into her second consecutive Grand Slam final, marking a standout 2024 season. She secured her spot in the final after two hours and 51 minutes of play on Centre Court and now awaits the winner of the second semifinal between No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina and No. 31 seed Barbora Krejcikova, both former Grand Slam champions.
Paolini’s journey follows her breakthrough at Roland Garros, where she reached her first Grand Slam final. Building on an impressive season, the petite Italian capitalized on her first WTA 1000 victory at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and her Roland Garros final appearance with exceptional performance on grass, advancing to the semifinals while losing only one set.
Leg and foot injuries in 2021 and 2022 left the Croat disenchanted, even after adding Hall of Famer Pam Shriver to her coaching team, and as recently as last month’s Roland Garros, Vekic confessed she felt on the brink of calling it a career.
“I didn’t have any energy, any motivation to keep practicing, keep pushing because I felt like the last couple months I’ve given everything for tennis, and I wasn’t getting the results that I kind of expected,” she said on Tuesday.