31st Seed Wins Wimbledon With 'Such Beautiful Tennis'

Barbora Krejcikova insisted that nobody—not her friends, not her family, not even herself—would believe she won Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam title. Her first major championship, as an unseeded player at the French Open three years ago, certainly was a surprise. This one, which came via a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Jasmine Paolini in the final at the All England Club in London on Saturday, was maybe just as unpredictable but perhaps made perfect sense, the AP reports, though it took a while to sink in. "It's just unreal what just happened," said Krejcikova. "Definitely the best day of my tennis career—and also the best day of my life."

Even while holding her gold champion's plate, Krejcikova described herself as "the lucky one" for getting past the seventh-seeded Paolini, who also was the runner-up at the French Open last month. The 28-year-old from the Czech Republic was only the 31st of 32 seeds at the All England Club after illness and a back injury this season limited her to a 7-9 record entering this tournament. Then came a three-setter in the first round last week, adding to the doubts, per the AP. But by the end of the fortnight, there Paolini was during the trophy ceremony, telling Krejcikova: "You play such beautiful tennis."

Krejcikova is the eighth woman to leave Wimbledon as the champion in the past eight editions of the event. Paolini is the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season—and the first since Venus Williams in 2002 to lose both. Saturday's finalists took turns being in charge. Playing coolly and efficiently—seemingly effortlessly—Krejcikova claimed 10 of the first 11 points and owned a double-break lead at 5-1. As much as the crowd, likely wanting to see a more competitive contest, pulled loudly for Paolini, yelling "Forza!" ("Let's go!") the way she often does, or "Calma!" ("Be calm!"), Krejcikova never wavered. Krejcikova mainly was content to stay at the baseline, delivering one smooth groundstroke after another to its appointed spot and getting the better of the lengthiest exchanges.

(More Wimbledon stories.)