Her first major championship, as an unseeded player at the
French Open three years ago, certainly was a surprise. This one, which came via
a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Jasmine Paolini in the final at the All England
Club on Saturday, was maybe just as unpredictable, sure, but perhaps now it’s
time to recognize that these sorts of results from Krejcikova are not only
possible but make perfect sense.
“It’s just unreal what just happened. Definitely the best
day of my tennis career — and also the best day of my life,” said Krejcikova, a
28-year-old from the Czech Republic, who thanked her late mentor, 1998
Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna, for pushing her into professional tennis.
Even while holding her gold champion’s plate, Krejcikova
described herself as “the lucky one” for getting past the seventh-seeded
Paolini, who also was the runner-up at the French Open last month.
Krejcikova was only the 31st of 32 seeds at the
All England Club after illness and a back injury this season limited her to a
7-9 record entering this tournament. Then came a three-setter in the first
round last week, adding to the doubts.
But by the end of the fortnight, there Paolini was during
the trophy ceremony, telling Krejcikova: “You play such beautiful tennis.”
Krejcikova is the eighth woman to leave Wimbledon as the
champion in the past eight editions of the event. Last year’s champion also is
from the Czech Republic: unseeded Marketa Vondrousova, who lost in the first
round last week.
Paolini is the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to
get to the finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season — and the
first since Venus Williams in 2002 to lose both.
Saturday’s finalists took turns being in charge.
Playing coolly and efficiently — seemingly effortlessly —
Krejcikova claimed 10 of the first 11 points and quickly owned a double-break
lead at 5-1.
As much as the crowd, likely because of a desire to see a
more competitive contest, pulled loudly for Paolini, yelling “Forza!” (“Let’s
go!”) the way she often does, or “Calma!” (“Be calm!”), Krejcikova never
wavered.
She has net skills, to be sure — that’s part of why she has
won seven Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, including two at Wimbledon — but
Krejcikova mainly was content to stay back at the baseline, simply delivering
one smooth groundstroke after another to its appointed spot and getting the
better of the lengthiest exchanges.
There really was no need for anything other than Plan A in
the early going in front of a Centre Court crowd that included actors Tom
Cruise, Kate Beckinsale and Hugh Jackman.
Paolini did try to shake things up a bit, with the
occasional serve-and-volley rush forward or drop shot, but she couldn’t solve
Krejcikova. Not yet, anyway.
After the lopsided first set, Paolini went to the locker
room. She emerged a different player, one who no longer looked like someone
burdened by residual fatigue from the longest women’s semifinal in Wimbledon
history, her 2-hour, 51-minute win over Donna Vekic on Thursday.
Paolini had come back from dropping the first set in that
one, so she knew she had it in her. And she began the second set against
Krejcikova in style, using deep groundstrokes to grab a 3-0 advantage.
Once the match was tied at a set apiece, it was Krejcikova
who left the court to try to recalibrate.
Her shots that suddenly went so awry in the match’s middle —
after just four winners in the second set, she accumulated 14 in the third —
were back to being crisp and clean.
“I was just telling myself to be brave,” Krejcikova said.
At 3-all in the deciding set, it was Paolini who faltered,
double-faulting for the only time all afternoon to get broken.
Krejcikova then held at love for 5-3, but when she served
for the championship, things got a little tougher.
She needed to save a pair of break points and required three
match points to get across the finish line, winning when Paolini missed a
backhand.
“Nobody believes that I got to the final. And I think nobody’s going to believe that I won Wimbledon,” Krejcikova said several minutes later. “I still cannot believe it. It’s unbelievable.” AP