KREJCIKOVA CLINCHES WIMBLEDON WOMEN'S SINGLES TITLE

LONDON, July 14 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic defeated Jasmine Paolini of Italy in three sets to claim the Wimbledon women's singles title here on Saturday, as reported by Xinhua.

Both appearing in their first Wimbledon singles final, 31st-seeded Krejcikova was too strong in the baseline for seventh seed Paolini in the first set, breaking twice to win 6-2.

But Paolini, who reached the French Open final earlier this month, raised her game with powerful shots and took the second set 6-2.

In a tense deciding set, the 2021 French Open champion and 10-time Grand Slam doubles champion, Krejcikova, grabbed a rare chance to break, wrapping it up 6-4.

"It's unreal what just happened," Krejcikova said. "This is definitely the best day of my career and my life."

"It was such a difficult match. I was telling myself to be brave. At the end, I was the lucky one. I didn't know I could win until the very last point. I still can't believe that I'm standing here, Wimbledon winner. How did that happen? I have no idea."

Krejcikova struggled in the first round as she fought extremely hard to edge out Russian Veronika Kudermetova in three tight sets. Then the 28-year-old had to overcome 11th seed Danielle Collins, 13th seed Jelena Ostapenko before facing 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.

Krejcikova was 4-0 down before losing the opening set 6-3 to hot favourite Rybakina, but crawled back to stun the fourth seed 6-3, 6-4.

"I had a really tough draw from the very first match," said Krejcikova. "I was just going match by match. I was just feeling better and getting better."

"Here I am. I don't know how that happened. But, yes, I'm a winner of this edition," she added. 

--BERNAMA-XINHUA