Just when it seemed the tempest that has raged through the women’s draw at this Wimbledon had finally blown itself out, along came Barbora Krejcikova, in the penultimate match of a fortnight already littered with surprises, to cause perhaps the biggest upset of all.
The 28-year-old Czech defeated Elena Rybakina, the former champion and runaway title favourite, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to reach her first final at the All England Club, where she will face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini at the weekend.
Across a fortnight packed with uncertainties, Rybakina had seemed the one sure thing. While her fellow top-five seeds were buffeted and toppled – Jessica Pegula in the second round, Iga Swiatek in the third, Coco Gauff in the fourth – the 25-year-old Kazakhstani defied the prevailing mayhem, making serene progress through the second quarter of the draw. Aside from Germany’s Laura Siegemund, who pushed her to a decider in round two, no one had taken more than three games in a set against Rybakina. She knew the course and distance, having won the title two summers against Ons Jabeur, and was mercifully free of the health problems that afflicted her in Rome and Paris. Surely she would be the one to step up, reaffirming the notion of a women’s “big three” by joining Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion – sadly forced to withdraw through injury on the first Monday – and Iga Swiatek, the French Open winner, as the third different champion in three grand slams?
It was a solid enough argument, but it overlooked a number of intangibles. Krejcikova, a former world No 2 and winner of the 2021 French Open, also knows what it is to go the distance at a major – even at Wimbledon, where she has won two doubles titles. She too had advanced to the last four for the loss of just one set (albeit her opening-round win over Veronika Kudermetova, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (1-7), 7-5, could barely have been tighter). Above all, Krejcikova had won both her previous meetings with Rybakina, and was no doubt one of the last players Rybakina would have wished to see obstructing her path to a third major final.
After a shaky start, Krejcikova made all those factors tell. She drew on her experience, maintaining her composure and positivity after losing all but one of her first four service games. As Rybakina launched a blistering early barrage, establishing a 4-0 lead, Krejcikova’s mental game was outstanding, the Czech responding to any rare sign of encouragement with a clenched fist. Often in tennis, such gestures are mere bluster, designed to intimidate the player at the opposite end, to let an opponent know that you are there. Not so with Krejcikova, whose stoic detachment is a defining quality of her game, even if her self-exhortations did grow in ferocity as the afternoon wore on.
Krejcikova also switched up her tactics from the second set onwards, approaching the net more often, using drop shots, crafting angles, moving inside the baseline. Rybakina, who smoked 19 winners in the first set to offset her 15 unforced errors, began to miss, her aggression no longer cancelling out her mistakes. By the time she righted the ship, it was too late.
“At the beginning she was just playing really well, she was just smashing the ball and she was [making] a lot of winners,” said Krejcikova. “But I felt that if I just stayed in the game, and if I kept fighting and tried to just stay there with her, that I’m going to get my chances.
“I felt that I had to maybe put a little bit more pressure on her just to change it. I was just looking for some options, and one of the options that I have is to serve and volley.”
The upshot is that an eighth different women’s champion in eight years will be crowned on Saturday, when Krejcikova will attempt to emulate the Centre Court victory of her late mentor, Jana Novotna, 26 years ago. She referenced the Czech legend in her on-court interview.
“Years ago, I was working with Jana Novotna, she won here in 1998,” Krejcikova recalled. “At that point, she was telling me a lot of stories about journeys here, and how she was trying to win Wimbledon. I was so far, really, when we had this talk. Now I’m here and I’m in the finals. Wow.”