By KEN MAGUIRE AP Sports Writer
LONDON — Barbora Krejcikova had a bad back and just a handful of wins this season before Wimbledon.
So, yeah, she’s pretty surprised to have reached the final at the All England Club on Saturday against seventh-seeded Jasmine Paolini, who is equally amazed to be one step away from the title.
Neither has played in a Wimbledon singles final before – Paolini was 0-3 at the grass-court major before this tournament started – and their meeting ensures there will be yet another new champion. Wimbledon has seen seven women win the past seven singles titles, dating to when Serena Williams won her seventh in 2016.
“I have had many difficult periods. I never really imagined that … I could reach a Wimbledon final, that I can be a different player,” said Krejcikova, who won the 2021 French Open for her only Grand Slam singles title.
Both Krejcikova and Paolini dropped their first set in the semifinals before fighting back to reach the final.
Krejcikova, the No. 31 seed, ousted 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, on Centre Court after Paolini outlasted Donna Vekic, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8), in the longest Wimbledon women’s semifinal on record.
For both winners, the momentum turned when they started playing more aggressively, which they’ll likely need to do again Saturday.
The 28-year-old Krejcikova dropped her first three service games, though she also broke the hard-serving Rybakina twice in the first set to at least give her something to build on as she mounted her comeback.
Krejcikova likes to come to the net – she’s won seven Grand Slam doubles titles, including two at Wimbledon – and after just one approach in the first set, she won 11 points on 14 trips forward.
“I felt that I had to maybe put a little bit more pressure on her. I was just looking first for some options. One of the options that I have is to serve and volley,” she said.
Before the semifinal, Krejcikova acknowledged: “I didn’t really expect to get this far.”
She reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January but was then slowed by a back injury and what she described as a series of illnesses.
After Melbourne Park, she played only nine matches – winning three – before coming to the All England Club. Two of the victories came at a grass-court tune-up tournament at Birmingham.
The 28-year-old Paolini, who is Italian and has family ties to Poland and Ghana, is the first woman representing Italy to reach the Wimbledon final in the Open era, which began in 1968.
She is also the first woman to get to the title matches at the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season since Williams in 2016.
“The finals, Paris and here – these are things I didn’t expect. It’s all special,” said Paolini, who lost to top-ranked Iga Swiatek in the Roland Garros final.
After getting some rest, Paolini and Krejcikova have plenty to work on. Krejcikova committed six double-faults against Rybakina. Paolini wasted two match points before putting away Vekic and said afterward: “I was drowning, but I managed to swim.”
The finalists have faced each other only once before, back during Australian Open qualifying in 2018. Krejcikova won in straight sets but that surely won’t factor into Saturday’s final – neither woman even recalled the match.
The 5-foot-4 Paolini tries to control rallies with early strikes and frustrates opponents by seemingly getting to every spot on the court defensively. Emma Navarro, who eliminated Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka before losing to Paolini in the quarterfinals, said the Italian was “on top of me from the very first point.”
