It was long, tearful and overflowing with drama, above and below the main narrative, and there could be no denying the joy of the happiest little Italian of them all, Jasmine Paolini, at the end of the longest women’s semi-final in the history of Wimbledon.
Her smile and exuberance carried the love of the crowd, which was tough on Donna Vekic, emotional on an entirely different plane, battling anxiety, self-doubt and a history of lost years when once there might have been unfettered glory.
After two hours and 51 minutes – a minute longer than Serena Williams’s 2009 epic on this court against the Russian Elena Dementieva – Paolini went through to her second slam final of the summer (and her career), 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8), but there were many moments when it could have gone either way.
The winner said courtside: “It was really tough. She played a great match. I tried to fight every ball. But I am so happy with this win. This match, I will remember for ever. I was not trying to think too much, point by point. There is no place better than here to fight every point. For players this is the best place.
“I think it is not easy for the family to watch a match like this, with the rollercoaster of emotions. I am so grateful to have them here, watching. This last month [after reaching the French Open final] has been crazy for me. But I am trying to focus on what’s happening on court. I was watching finals at Wimbledon when I was a kid. I am just living the present. I hope you enjoyed it. I tried to play my best. Now I have to recover, an ice bath. I am a little bit tired, so happy to be in the final.”
And the loser? She had much to regret, much to look back on, and too much to process in a career that once promised everything, and has delivered very little.
The tall teenager looked vaguely out of place on that night a dozen years ago in the noisy New York bar, PJ Clarke’s on 3rd Avenue, a regular haunt of the travelling tennis caravan. Soft drink in hand, she stood quietly next to her British coach, David Felgate, among curious hacks (no soft drinks), wondering who she might be. Her agent, Lawrence Frankopan, had high hopes for her, and so did she and her family and friends back in Croatia. Yet, it never quite happened for this amiable and significantly talented player.
Yet, in another defeat, she maybe had a victory of sorts: survival and redemption. With a forehand that would have blown many a player off Centre Court, and a serve to frighten horses, Vekic so nearly fought her way into the first grand slam final of her career at 28, fully 12 years and a thousand disappointments after that night in Manhattan. Riding a wave of form that has settled her often nervous demeanour, she almost had too much game for Paolini.
They are the same age, Vekic and Paolini, but they view the game from contrasting perspectives – in more ways than one. This was apparent from the moment the 5ft 4in Italian threw her first service ball into the air by at least her own height, then curved it into the box she surely could not see on the other side of the 3ft net.
Receiving these subtle mini-bombs from just beyond the baseline was 5ft 10in Vekic, an altogether more imposing presence, brooding, unsmiling. Idling at 37 in the rankings, she was favoured by few to win this match against the world No 7.
Size is not everything; attitude often is. It is not long since Vekic considered quitting the game after a run of 20 first-round exits in 43 grand slam tournaments, while Paolini, it seems, would play for fun in a hurricane.
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The Italian struggled to disturb the power play until the second set, when she found cracks in Vekic’s game and confidence. As the retired champion, Ash Barty, remarked, “You can hear the crowd, they want to see some of the flair, the smile, of Paolini.”
Vekic was tantalisingly close to upsetting the odds, yet anxiety seemed to spread on her racket at key moments. The match was just about hers to lose from 3-1 up in the third after a rare 40-love hold, but, when she motioned to her box to “stop” on her way to dropping serve in the sixth game, she looked seriously dispirited.
And then came the first-to-10 tie-break to shred all nerves totally.
Against the flow, the anxiety now flowed on both sides of the net; Paolini double-faulted for 1-3, but was grateful for two wayward Vekic forehands, and they crossed at 3-3. On they went: 5-5; 6-5 Vekic; 6-6; 7-6 Paolini; 7-7; 8-7 Vekic; 8-8; 9-8 Paolini and match point … followed by a closing Vekic forehand sliding sadly into the tramlines.