Jasmine Paolini writes another indelible page of Italian tennis history on the grass of Wimbledon. In the first women's semifinal of the London Slam, in fact, the Italian defeated Croatian top forty Donna Vekic in a comeback, forced to surrender with a score of 2-6 6-4 7-6 (10-8) after almost three hours of contention. A liberating scream for Paolini, who became the first Italian ever to win the final at the Championships, after reaching the last act of Roland Garros in both singles and doubles paired with Sara Errani. Now the pupil of coach Renzo Furlan, already certain to hoist herself at least to the number five position in the world rankings as of next Monday, will return to the Centre Court lawn in the early afternoon of Saturday, July 13 (beginning at 3 p.m. Italian time) against 28-year-old Czech Barbora Krejcikova (No. 32 in the rankings), who in the second semifinal of the day got the better of Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the fourth force on the scoreboard and winner of the British Major in 2022, in three sets (3-6 6-3 6-4).
|