Barbora Krejcikova fought off Italian crowd-pleaser Jasmine Paolini to claim the Wimbledon singles trophy on Saturday with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory on sunlit Centre Court.
Krejcikova enjoyed a near-perfect opening performance but was stunned by some blistering Paolini tennis in the second set to send it down summer hard-courts own famous route as they played their way through another tiebreak.
Seventh seed Paolini seemed to have the momentum, until 31st-seeded Krejcikova broke serve at 3-3 in a tight third set (after facing four break points of her own) when she lobbed over Latio’s head and forced an error.
In the title service at 5-4, Krejcikova survived two match points and saved a couple of break points before converting her third opportunity to seal victory
” I was just telling myself to be brave and if the game doesn’t go my way it’s still 5-5 and we continue,” said Krejcikova, famously watched by Czech-born nine-time singles champion Martina Navratilova as he tried to describe a nerve-shredding finale.
