2024-07-12 05:20:02
Barbora Krejcikova beat Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach her first Wimbledon final, extending her head-to-record against the Kazakh world No 4 to 3-0.
The match was on Rybakina’s racket, particularly when serving, but she never recovered from a dismal second set, after having breezed through the first with a display of the serene, simple grass-court game that carried her to the title at the All England Club in 2022.
Despite frequently making inroads into Krejcikova’s serve, in the second half of the second set as well as the first, she converted just three of nine break points, all of them in the first set, in which two of the three games Krejcikova won were on her opponent’s serve.
Rybakina lost out on rallies of 0-4 shots for the first time in the tournament, 67 to 71. That was one of the differences come the end, in a match with an average rally length of just over three shots, and a final points difference of 95-92 in Krejcikova’s favour.
The other was points played at net. Rybakina won eight in the first set, out of 11 played; Krejcikova won zero from one, having been dominated by the Kazakh throughout.
In the more even second and third sets, Krejcikova swung the battle, taking seven out of nine and four out of five, as opposed to six out of nine and four out of seven for Rybakina.
Krejcikova will play Jasmine Paolini in the final on Saturday, with both women seeking a first Wimbledon title.
‘A pretty quiet Centre Court’
Analysis from Charlie Eccleshare
The half-hearted drop shot to give up the crucial break in the final set summed up a strange performance from Rybakina, who looked in complete control of a match that was ultimately on her racket.
Racing into a 4-0 lead in the first set, Rybakina held break points in all four of her opponent’s service games, winning three of them — and it would have been four, had she not botched an easy put-away up set point.
The start of the second set continued in a similar vein, with Rybakina forcing break points in three straight games, but this time, she didn’t take any of them. What had felt inevitable was suddenly in doubt, and after getting broken cheaply herself, Rybakina was sleepwalking into a deciding set on a quiet Centre Court.
There was little to suggest that Krejcikova, who stayed in the match by clinging onto her serve in those three games, was about to make things truly competitive, let alone win it. But she slowly filled the vacuum left by Rybakina’s shrinking out of the match, upsetting her rhythm and striking well-placed flashing winners when she could, to remind the No 4 seed that she has aggression to go with her effective mix of slice and offspeed groundstrokes. The drop shot was effective too; certainly more so than that attempt made by Rybakina in the final set’s decisive moment.
Rybakina looked at a loss to understand how she ended up behind (Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)
Krejcikova ultimately deserved the result, but Rybakina will be furious at herself for letting this slip away, as she converted just three of her nine break points. At times it felt like things were too easy for the former champion, and she was unable to transition from cruising along in third gear to putting her foot on the pedal when Krejcikova started to come after her.
For the Czech, this is a huge win — her first Grand Slam final since winning the French Open three years ago. Until this tournament, she hadn’t gone beyond the quarters of a major since, and in a tearful on-court interview, she paid tribute to her former mentor and compatriot Jana Novotna, who won Wimbledon in 1998 having cried herself on Centre Court after losing a devastating final to Steffi Graf in 1993.
Krejcikova’s win here means a new Wimbledon champion on Saturday, and an eighth different women’s winner in the last eight editions.
(Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images)
