The 2024 Wimbledon Championships will bring us a first-time Wimbledon champion, Jasmine Paolini, who will battle Barbora Krejcikova.
Fans at SW19 got to see some exciting Wimbledon finals recently, and that trend will continue this year, as Paolinim who reached the Roland Garros final recently, and Krejcikova, who won the French Open a few years ago, will meet in it.
Neither has been one of the top players on the WTA Tour in the past 12 months, but they shouldn't be unknown to the broader tennis audience. After all, the Italian played in the Roland Garros final a month ago and will be at least third in the 2024 WTA Race to Riyadh after the grass-court major.
That's an incredible achievement for a player who spent most of her career outside of the Top 50. Getting to this point wasn't a fluke, though. She played well and battled relentlessly to make the final.
The Italian is known for her fighting spirit, and she will need plenty of it to fight against Krejcikova. The Czech player improved to 3-0 against Elena Rybakina after beating her on Thursday in London. She won Roland Garros a few years ago, so this stage isn't that strange for her, but this run came out of nowhere.
They have only played once so far, and it happened years ago when Krejcikova smashed Paolini at the 2018 Australian Open 6-2, 6-1. Lots of things have changed since then; most notably, Paolini became one of the best players on the Tour.
As dramatic as her rise seems, it's actually very impressive. She's backing it up week after week, and she will try to lift her first major now.
| Barbora Krejcikova | Jasmine Paolini | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | H2H | 0 |
| 32 | Rank | 7 |
| 28 | Age | 28 |
| 13-9 | 2024 W/L | 30-12 |
| 384-216 | Career W/L | 375-262 |
It's a fascinating matchup because both players can win. Krejcikova does have some advantage in terms of style of play, but you can't ever count out Paolini. She's proven quite resilient this year, so she will have a chance.
Prediction: Jasmine Paolini to win in three sets.