IMAGES from the ladies singles semi-finals at the Wimbledon Championships, in London, on Thursday.
Barbora Krejcikova produced a superb comeback to reach her first Wimbledon final, showing stubborn resilience in the face of a relentless attacking barrage from former champion Elena Rybakina to triumph 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday.
Kazakhstan's Rybakina had threatened to run away with the contest in the first set, racing to a 5-1 lead with her brand of full-throttle high intensity tennis.
Yet after losing the opener, the 2021 French Open champion dug in and eventually fathomed the puzzle on the other side of the net, breaking in the sixth game of the second set before levelling the contest.
With the momentum having shifted in her favour, the Czech took control in the decider, breaking in the seventh game when Rybakina netted an attempted drop shot.
She brought up three match-points with a smash at the net before kicking off the celebrations when Rybakina sent a backhand return long.
Krejcikova will take on seventh seed Jasmine Paolini in the final after the Italian overcame Donna Vekic in a marathon encounter earlier on Centre Court.
Paolini edges Vekic in marathon semi-final
Seventh seed Jasmine Paolini became the first Italian woman to reach the Wimbledon final after defeating Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) in the longest women's semi-final at the All England Club.
Fans were treated to a roller-coaster encounter on Centre Court as both players exhausted themselves seeking a spot in the final against either Barbora Krejcikova or 2022 champion Elena Rybakina.
The two 28-year-olds were in unchartered territory, with Vekic playing the first major semi-final of her career while Paolini had never even won a match on grass before this year.
The Croatian took the opening set comfortably having broken Paolini, a surprise finalist at the French Open last month, in the fifth game and then again in the seventh with her mixture of groundstrokes and dropshots proving too much for the Italian under a sunny sky.
However, Paolini, cheered on by a loud contingent of Italians in the crowd, became more aggressive in the second as she approached the net more and put Vekic on the backfoot. Her diligence and energy eventually paid off with a break to clinch the set.
"These last months have been crazy for me. I am trying to focus on what I have to do on court and I love playing tennis. It is amazing to be here and it is a dream," Paolini, who reached the semi-finals in Eastbourne last month, said on court.
"I think it was an intense match and I tried to play my best and now it's time to recover. I think I need an ice bath as my legs are a little bit tired."
The previous longest women's semi-final at Wimbledon was two hours and 50 minutes between Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva in 2009.
