Fresh from an emphatic triumph over Coco Gauff 's conqueror Emma Navarro , French Open runner-up Paolini shared the court with Croatia's Donna Vekic for two hours and 51 minutes, the longest women's semi-final in the history of Wimbledon. By the end of a nerve-jangling third-set tie-break, seventh seed Paolini completed a fabulous fightback to prevail 2-6 6-4 7-6[8] against her unseeded opponent, who was overcome by the wrong kind of emotion as Paolini let elation take over. A tearful Vekic struggled to stem the waterworks at critical points in the match, but she still managed to save two of Paolini's match points to force a pivotal tie-breaker, where the Croatian earned the first mini-break for a 3-1 lead.
However, Paolini immediately made up the deficit and fashioned her third chance to rubber-stamp her place in the final at 9-8, after which Vekic whipped a forehand wide to make Paolini the first-ever Italian woman to make a Wimbledon singles final. A late bloomer on the Grand Slam finals scene at 28 years old, Paolini had never even won a main-draw match at Wimbledon before laying down a serious marker on the SW19 grass this time around, although she benefitted from a whopping 57 unforced errors on Vekic's side. BARBORA KREJCIKOVA IS A WIMBLEDON FINALIST 🇨🇿 The Czech comes from a set down to beat 2022 champion Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 #Wimbledon pic.
twitter.com/Yo57VVuC4T Inspired by Paolini's exhilarating turnaround in the first semi-final of the day, 31st seed .