On July 11 local time, in the women’s singles semifinals of the 2024 Wimbledon Tennis Championships, seventh-seeded Paolini staged a comeback from 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) against Vikic, advancing to back-to-back Grand Slam finals and becoming the first Italian player to reach the women’s singles title match at Wimbledon.
In their three previous encounters, Paolini had won twice, holding the upper hand. Their most recent meeting was in the first round of last year’s Montreal tournament, where Paolini emerged victorious with a 7-6 (3)/6-2 scoreline. In today’s match, Vikic quickly found her rhythm, consistently pressuring Paolini on her serve, and the Croatian beauty won five games in a row after trailing 1-2, taking the first set 6-2.
In the second set, the battle was even more closely contested, with both players holding serve until they were locked at 4-4. Then, Vikic’s serve wavered in the must-hold service game, and Paolini seized the opportunity to break, securing the set 6-4 by breaking and holding serve. Entering the deciding set, both players’ serving form dipped slightly, leading to four breaks of serve, with the score seesawing until it reached 6-6 after twelve games, during which Vikic saved two match points in the tenth and twelfth games. In the tie-break decider, Paolini performed better, converting her third match point to win the tie-break 10-8, defeating Vikic 2-1 overall and advancing to the final, awaiting the winner between Rybakina and Krejcikova.
