London, July 11: Tennis is supposed to be getting taller. Tennis is supposed to be getting more serious. But then along comes the super-smiley, 5ft 4in Jasmine Paolini, who, after beating Donna Vekic in an instant classic to reach a first Wimbledon ladies’ singles final, is closing in on becoming the shortest champion in the Open Era, as well as the first Italian and also the sunniest.
This was a fabulous, hugely emotional and entertaining semi-final between Jasmine and Vekic, an unseeded Croatian with a side hustle as a luxury candle-maker, including one with a ‘champagne and strawberry’ fragrance, which is apparently “the scent of success”.
Who knows what success actually smells like but, observing Paolini’s face after she twice came from a break down in the final set before winning the tiebreak 10-8 after almost three hours, it seems clear what it looks like. And what it feels like.
After a match of this intensity, with several swings of momentum and all sorts of emotions, you can imagine that Paolini might want to buy one of Vekic’s candles to soothe her mind before playing Elena Rybakina or Barbora Krejcikova on Saturday.
“This match, I’ll remember it forever,” Paolini said after her 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) victory, and she won’t be alone. “It was a roller-coaster of emotions.”Here was a match so wild and so epic that, even before it was over, Vekic was in tears, overwhelmed by the occasion and what was at stake on the grass.
Paolini had her first match point at 5-4 and a second at 6-5 before completing her win with her third opportunity in the tiebreak. Vekic, the first Croatian woman this century to go this deep into the Wimbledon draw, was distraught at the end. Paolini, meanwhile, was even smilier than usual. And if she looks this happy after making the final, what will her reaction be if she wins on Saturday?
Strange to think that, when the Fortnight began, Paolini wasn’t even sure whether she could play on grass.
Arriving in London this summer, Paolini hadn’t even won a match on the Wimbledon lawns and, though her coach was telling her she could compete on the sport’s original surface, she wasn’t convinced.
And yet, with every round, Paolini has become more assured on the lawns and, after she became the first Italian woman to reach the semi-finals, has now won again and could go on to make even more history on Saturday.
What a remarkable breakthrough season this has been for Paolini, who at the start of the year hadn’t even gone beyond the second round at any of the Grand Slams.
After making the fourth round of the Australian Open, and then appearing in a first major final at Roland-Garros last month when she was the runner-up to Iga Swiatek, Paolini will play for a Grand Slam title for a second time. (AP)
