By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Barbora Krejcikova’s dominance over Elena Rybakina continued after pulling off a come-from-behind win- 3.6, 6.3, 6.4- during their action-packed Wimbledon semifinal duel on July 12, 2024.
Krejcikova, the current world no. 32 ranked female tennis player, entered the matchup unfazed against the world no. 4 Rybakina, outplaying her in the last two sets to clinch another Grand Slam championship ticket.
Three years since winning her lone Grand Slam title during the 2021 French Open, the Czech ace is yet to add another major trophy under her belt. She will have the chance to claim her second if she cruises past Jasmine Paolini in this year’s Wimbledon grand finals.
Despite a lower seeding in the Wimbledon tournament, Krejcikova carried a momentum-boosting 2-0 head-to-head lead over Rybakina and once again proved that she was her kryptonite in the bright lights in London.
Just like their past two matches, Krejcikova gave up the first set and was derailed by many unforced errors during their long baseline exchange rallies.
However, Krejcikova didn’t panic and approached the matchup just like their previous encounters and bounced back with a stronger service game that helped her get back into the semifinal match.
With a better first service percentage, Krejcikova started to dissect Rybakina’s groundstroke game and forced her to go to the net area.
Krejcikova’s strategy then worked to perfection as her short balls disrupted Rybakina’s safe position behind the middle of the baseline, forcing her to rush in the no man’s land to defend her net.
Midway through the second set, Krejcikova completely stole the momentum away from Rybakina after scoring a crucial break point that ballooned her lead.
From that point, Rybakina just fumbled and lost most of the crucial exchange points that allowed Krejcikova to steamroll her way to an impressive reverse sweep victory.
With the huge win, Krejcikova just set up a highly-anticipated Wimbledon final matchup against Paolini today, to be held in the center court of the All England Tennis and Croquet Club.
