CENTRE COURT — Barbora Krejcikova became the fifth Czech woman to win Wimbledon and paid tribute to the first, the late Jana Novotna, in her winner’s speech.
Her opponent Jasmine Paolini was trying to become the first woman from her own native Italy to win at SW19 and bounced back from a one-sided opening set to force a decider.
And while defending champion and Krejcikova’s fellow countrywoman Marketa Vondrousova was eliminated in the first round, the No 31 seed secured the only break of the final’s deciding set before converting her third match point after just short of two hours.
And Krejcikova spoke movingly afterwards about the impact of Novotna, the 1998 champion who died of ovarian cancer in 2017, had on her career.
“Before she passed away, she told me to go and win a slam,” said Krejcikova, who first did so at the French Open in 2021.
“That was an unbelievable moment for me and I never really dreamed that I would win the same trophy that Jana did in 1998.”
Krejcikova first met Novotna when, at the age of 18, she went to her hometown and asked her to be her coach.
She added: “I think coming to Jana, knocking on her door, giving her the letter, everything that happened during that moment change my life.
“During the period when I finished university, I didn’t know what I should do, whether I should play pro or go the way of education. Jana was the one that told me I should definitely go pro.”
The first real test of Krejcikova’s composure came after 33 minutes when she was asked to serve out the opening set. Paolini had been able to exert precious little pressure on the Czech’s serve in the first half hour, winning just five points against the head, and when the 2021 French Open champion held to love, the Italian could be forgiven for allowing her head to drop a little.
Paolini took herself off court for an allowed bathroom break, an attempt to reverse the momentum. Certainly everything she had done on the court to that point had proved futile, so changing tack was inevitable.
She had all the will of the crowd behind her though. Apart from a vociferous group of Czechs in her box, including 1973 Wimbledon champion Jan Kodes, and just behind it, the majority of the 15,000 people in Centre Court had been enchanted by the pocket rocket power of Paolini, who was trying to become the shortest Wimbledon champion in Open era history at an official 5ft 4in.
At the other end, the towering 5ft 10in Krejcikova appeared unperturbed by the noise and support around her, but that changed when the pendulum swung back towards Paolini, who broke early in the second set and left her opponent throwing her arms in the air in frustration at mid-point shriek.
It might have been even worse for Krejcikova had she not saved two break points to go 4-0 down, but the shift in energy had already taken place.
Paolini was flowing, with as many winners in the first four games of the second as in the entire first set, and had at least now won more games than she had in her previous grand slam final – a 6-2, 6-1 drubbing at the hands of Iga Swiatek in Paris six weeks ago.
But Paolini had more than that in her sights, a first Italian women’s title at Wimbledon specifically, pumping her fist with a quiet determination between points.
She closed out the third set, but then it was Krejcikova’s turn to leave the court and the momentum shifted again. After five breaks of serve across two sets, serve became the dominant force in the decider, ratcheting up the pressure.
Krejcikova may only have been in one singles grand slam final before, like Paolini, but has won seven doubles titles, including Wimbledon. So perhaps it was no surprise that it was Paolini, a debut major finalist just six weeks ago, who cracked. Break point down at 3-3, she produced her only double-fault of the entire match. It could hardly have been timed worse.