Wimbledon: Mamma mia! Jasmine Paolini’s ‘crazy’ ride to the Wimbledon final

Italy’s Jasmine Paolini plays with a hop, skip and a jump. She plays with flair, passion, joy, intensity, personality and irrepressible pop. Unknown a month ago, she’s on the verge of winning Wimbledon.

Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejcikova meet Saturday night in the final of the women’s singles at Wimbledon.

I love the wear and tear on Centre Court. The playing surface resembles the lush front lawn of Buckingham Palace Garden when The Championships begin. By finals weekend, luxuriant grass has been trampled to death and dirt and dust by a procession of fleet-footed athletes. It’s proof of the toil undertaken.

Nobody’s moved faster around these arid baselines than Italian Jasmine Paolini. She plays with a hop, skip and a jump. She plays with flair, passion, joy, intensity, personality and irrepressible pop. She’s a stunning new face among the elite of women’s tennis, and a welcome addition, a 163cm bundle of energy and enthusiasm who will contest her first Wimbledon final, against Czech Barbora Krejcikova, with the zest of someone who’s just consumed a couple of double-shot cappuccinos at her seaside home town of Forte dei Marmi in northern Tuscany.

“Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvellous than the land,“ E. M. Forster once wrote. The indefatigable, fist-pumping, laughing, smiling, humorous, personable, crowd-pleasing Paolini makes you think he was probably right. Her 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) semi-final win over Croatia’s Dona Vekic was excruciatingly tense but she maintained the most positive body language since Gina Lollobrigida was lighting up the silver screen. To a standing ovation she shouted, “Grazie! Grazie! Thank you! Thank you!”

Bloomin’ heck, she’s a late bloomer. The 28-year-old is making a name for herself in a sport where starlets usually arrive as strutting, pouting teenagers. She’s winning hearts and melting them. She’d never won a match on grass until this English summer. Unfathomably, really, she’s just one win away from the life-changing honour of becoming Wimbledon champion. “I’m writing my own story, my own career,” she said.

Mamma mia! After years of indifferent results, Paolini is the first Italian woman to reach the decider at the All England Club, blowing kisses to her enraptured audience after the thriller against Vekic, making everyone swoon with her delightful post-match commentary. She returned to her London apartment for a large plate of pasta pomodoro. Which was whipped up by the personal chef she has on tour.

Paolini during her semi-final against Donna Vekic.

“I feel amazing. I’m just feeling so great,” Paolini said. “I’m really enjoying to play in the big stadium. I feel grateful to the crowd that is watching me. I love to play in these kind of courts. It feels more special. To play important matches … I’m so grateful the crowd is cheering for me. It’s a great feeling for a tennis player. We are at Wimbledon. We have to enjoy.”

The bloomin’ late bloomer has reached back-to-back major finals. If you told Paolini a year ago she would feature in the championship matches at Roland Garros and the All England Club? “I think even two months ago … ‘You are crazy,’ I would say,” she said. “I don’t have words. You are crazy because two grand slam finals in a row was crazy to believe, no?”

She added: “I’m surprised how I’m living this. I feel maybe Saturday, I will be so nervous, but I’m surprising myself by living this with a really relaxing mood. I’m the same person. I’m doing the same things. I’m surprised by how I’m managing this but I don’t want to say more because maybe Saturday I’m going to be shaking. I’m trying to live the present and to enjoy what I’m doing. And don’t forget where I am. I think it’s a really privileged position. I have to keep that in focus.”

Veni, vidi, vici. She came, she saw, she conquered Vekic. At times, she ran around like a head with its chook cut off. Next minute, she was furrowing her brow in stern concentration. “It’s a balance, I think, between enjoying and being focused,” she said. “Sometimes I’m trying to say to myself, ‘Okay, jokes apart, enjoy. But stay also focused. Think about what you have to do to step on court and give the 100 per cent that you have. I never played against Barbora but she’s a grand slam champion. She plays tennis unbelievable.”

Krejcikova was the 2021 French Open champion. She was the underdog against Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in the other semi-final but rattled off a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 upset. The quick-moving, leaping, soft shoe-shuffling Paolini’s victory over the breathless, crying Vekic in two hours and 51 minutes was the longest ladies semi-final in Wimbledon’s 147-year history. Krejcikova prevailed in two hours and seven minutes on a day or marathon matches. The hallowed turf was more torn and worn than ever. Call chef. We all needed a plate of pasta pomodoro.

Jana Novotna is consoled by the Duchess of Kent after her defeat in Wimbledon final of 1993.

Krejcikova is fuelled by the memory of the late Jana Novotna, the adored late Czech player who overcame her notorious nerves to score an immensely popular Wimbledon victory in 1998. Aged 49, Novotna died in 2017 from ovarian cancer. Krejcikova spent a lot of time with Novotna in the last few months of her coach, mentor, friend and hero’s life.

“I just miss her very much,” said Krejcikova, wiping away tears. “I miss her so much. Definitely I think about Jana a lot. I have so many beautiful memories and when I step on the court here, I am fighting for every ball because I am sure that is what she would want me to do.”

The Venus Rosewater Dish has gone to seven different champions in the last seven years. Here comes an eighth first-time Wimbledon winner. I’d have Krejcikova a slight favourite. She yelled Pojd! Pojd! – her native equivalent of C’mon! C’mon! – while swamping Rybakina in a consummate display of all-court tennis.

Famously, Novotna cried on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent after surrendering a commanding lead to lose in three sets to Steffi Graf in the 1993 final. “I know you’ll win it one day,” Don’t worry,” the Duchess told Novotna, who broke down on the spot. She was beaten by 16-year-old Martina Hingis in the 1997 final before her crowning moment in 1998. Novotna snuck past France’s Nathalie Tauziat in two close sets in the final and received the trophy from the Duchess. “A very nice lady,” Novotna said.

She was as nice as it gets, too. Quietly spoken, a true lover of tennis, generous with her time and advice for young Czech players like Krejcikova. Novotna’s passing broke the hearts of many in the sport. “After my juniors career, it was a lot about Jana for me,” Krejcikova said. “I had an opportunity to meet her and to spend time with her. To see how she behaves, who she is, how she became such a big champion. I was working with Jana and I mean, I was so far away and now I am here. It’s great that right now I’m also a slam champion and I’m in a finals of Wimbledon. We talked about her matches here. I hope she would be proud.”

Krejcikova fought back from a set down to book her place in the final.

Paolini and Krejcikova have clashed once. Of all the times and places, it was in the first round of the qualifying tournament at the 2018 Australian Open. Krejcikova won an unglamorous contest 6-2, 6-1. “To be honest, I don’t remember the match,” she said. “It’s a very long time ago. It’s become a great journey for both of us to reach the Wimbledon finals. I expect a difficult match. It’s going to be a big match for both of us. I expect a lot of fighting from both sides. I expect a very, very, very nice match.”

There were enough waterworks on Thursday to warrant closing the roof. Vekic wept during her loss to the fiery, extroverted Paolini. She sobbed once more in a rather harrowing press conference. We are at Wimbledon, as Paolini says, we have to enjoy. And yet Vekic was inconsolable. Winning isn’t everything … until you lose.

“I thought I was going to die in the third set,” Vekic said. “I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg. It was not easy out there. My tears were not because – I mean, I don’t know. I was more crying because I had so much pain. I didn’t know how I could keep playing. My team tells me that I can be proud of myself but it’s tough to be positive right now. It’s really tough. I will need to take couple of days to see everything. It was so close.

Third-set tiebreakers are tennis’ equivalent of football’s penalty shootouts. There’s a cruel tension. It’s difficult to watch and yet impossible to ignore. The crying and sniffling Vekic was exhausted but Paolini was as fresh as the courtside petunias, receiving a lucky net cord as if the net itself wanted her to win. She hit an ace that was ruled in by three millimetres, according to the video replay, as though the blades of grass were conspiring in her favour. It was thrilling and entertaining stuff. Paolini sprinted down the sideline in a gleeful celebration. Grazie! Grazie! Thank you! Thank you! More marvellous than the land.