Six months ago, the deepest Jasmine Paolini had gone at a grand slam was the second round.
A run to the last 16 of January’s Australian Open held promise of better to come, and when the 28-year-old claimed a historic triumph in Dubai the following month, becoming only the third Italian woman to win a WTA 1000 title, the feeling was that she had delivered. In fact, she was barely getting started.
Six weeks ago, Paolini embarked on an extraordinary run to the final of the French Open, and on Thursday she reached the final of a second straight major, prevailing in a physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting battle with Donna Vekic to win the longest women’s semi-final in Wimbledon history.
By the time Vekic drilled a final forehand wide to confirm Paolini’s 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) victory, two hours and 51 minutes had elapsed, eclipsing Serena Williams’s epic 2009 win over Elena Dementieva by three minutes. In a measure of the magnitude of her summer, Paolini also became the first woman to reach the finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season since Williams in 2016. In half a season, she has gone from a grand slam also-ran to being mentioned in the same breath as arguably the greatest female player in history; like her latest success, it has been the wildest of rides.
“It was really tough today, she played unbelievable,” said the seventh-seeded Paolini on court afterwards. “She was hitting winners everywhere. I was a little bit struggling at the beginning, but I was just repeating to myself to fight [for] every ball and to improve a little bit.
“I am so happy with this win. This match, I will remember forever.”
It was, indeed, unforgettable, an occasion of unrelenting drama and emotion and no little quality. Yet Vekic, who cut a distraught figure down the stretch, will not be able to banish it from her memory soon enough.
If major trophies were handed out on the strength of perseverance alone, the unseeded Croatian would have been a multiple grand slam champion by now. As it is, she has taken the long road, one punctuated by injuries, knee surgery and thoughts of retirement. This was her first major semi-final – she has previously reached the last eight at the Australian and US Open, achieving a career-high ranking of No 19 – and while she is projected to rise from her current position of 37 to the cusp of the top 20 next week, that will be scant consolation.
Vekic dominated the first set, barely losing a point behind her first serve while feasting on the 5ft 4in Paolini’s delivery. Returning from inside the baseline and going hell-for-leather with her booming forehand, Vekic looked nigh-on unplayable.
But history has shown otherwise, and as Paolini improved her serving statistics and started to show greater variety, throwing in drop shots, approaching the net and switching to a deeper return position, so she began to make inroads. It made for a far more competitive second set, the pair matching each other step for step until the 10th game, where the cumulative pressure told on the Croatian. Serving to stay in the set, Vekic left the door ajar with a double fault, and Paolini gratefully forced it open.
On we went to a deciding set, one Vekic looked likely to control when she consolidated an early break to lead 3-1. But Paolini was far from done. She hit back to level, promptly dropped serve again as Vekic jumped on an inviting 66mph second serve, and then took full advantage as the Croatian, feeling the toll of going the distance for the fifth time in six matches, began to stretch out her legs and ice her forearm.
From there, it became a battle of Vekic’s brave shot-making and Paolini’s tenacity and resilience. The Italian kept pressing, moving her opponent deep into the corners, forever making one more ball. As Vekic prepared to serve to stay in the match, she was visibly distressed. She nonetheless steeled herself to hold with some brilliant serving, saving a match point in the process, and at 5-5 she twice held a break point that would have left her serving for the match.
Again, Paolini held on. As Vekic trudged disconsolately back to her chair, she dissolved into tears. Up in the players’ box, Pam Shriver, her coach, yelled encouragement. Brankica Vekic, her mother, wore a haunted expression. Somehow, though, Vekic rallied to hold again, winning a tense 17-shot rally to fend off a second match point. A fraught 10-point tiebreak followed, but it was not be for Vekic.
“Tough, tough match,” she later reflected, struggling to maintain her composure as she faced the media. “I believed that I could win until the end. She played some amazing tennis and all congrats to her, she definitely deserved it.
“I thought I was going to die in the third set, I had so much pain in my arm, my leg. So it was not easy out there, but I will recover.
“I was more crying because I had so much pain that I didn’t know how I could keep playing.”
Paolini, meanwhile, stands on the brink of history for the second time in little more than a month. In Saturday’s final, she will face Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, who later fought back from a set down to stun Elena Rybakina, the former champion and title favourite, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.