In theory, a former Grand Slam champion winning one again shouldn't come as a massive surprise. But Barbora Krejčíková's journey to becoming the 2024 Wimbledon women's singles champion was something virtually no one would've expected coming into the tournament.
Back things up three years to the spring of 2021, where Krejčíková, an accomplished doubles player, made the best run of her singles career on the red clay of Roland Garros to win the French Open. That's a title that continues to age like a fine wine given that Iga Świątek has won the other four French Opens since 2020 and shows no sign of slowing down.
Krejčíková rocketed up the world rankings from No. 65 at the start of 2021 to No. 5 by the end of the year. She made a run to the quarterfinals at the 2022 Australian Open and reached a career peak of No. 2 in the rankings in late February of the same year, but a slew of injuries since have derailed her burgeoning singles success.
Coming into 2024, she owned a paltry 7-7 record in Grand Slam singles matches since those injuries started piling up. Even after an encouraging run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in January, a back injury shortly after kept Krejčíková sidelined for two months.
This all led to Krejčíková entering Wimbledon as the No. 31 seed — a 125-1 longshot with a 7-9 singles record in 2024 and a 6-3 career Wimbledon singles record. Needless to say, she wasn't a popular pick to emerge from the most famous fortnight in tennis lifting the champion's trophy.
Krejčíková needed a tight three sets just to get past Veronika Kudermetova in the first round, then more comfortably defeated Katie Volynets and Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro. From there, the competition level ramped up.
Krejčíková upended 11th-seeded Danielle Collins in straight sets to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, where she ousted 13th-seeded Jeļena Ostapenko in another straight-set victory to reach the semifinals in singles competition of a Grand Slam for the first time since her 2021 French Open triumph.
The semifinal pit her against No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina — the 2022 Wimbledon champion and favorite at that point in the tournament — and Krejčíková was able to overcome a loss in the first set to upset Rybakina in three.
Krejčíková's opponent in the final was Jasmine Paolini, a tremendous story in her own right. The 28-year-old Italian entered this season with a career 4-16 record in Grand Slam singles competition. After reaching the fourth round of a major for the first time at the Australian Open, Paolini rattled off six wins at the French Open to reach the final before bowing out against clay demigod Świątek.
Paolini followed that up with another run to the final at Wimbledon, an event where she was 0-3 coming into this year, to become the first woman to reach the final at both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season since Serena Williams in 2016.
No matter the result, a storybook ending was in store for the last Saturday at Wimbledon, where the eighth different woman in the last eight years was about to win the title. Krejčíková and Paolini, the latter of whom defeated Donna Vekić in the longest women's semifinal in tournament history to reach this stage, gave the crowd everything they could've asked for.
Krejčíková seized the first set 6-2 behind her stellar serving and Paolini responded in kind in the second by pouncing on Krejčíková once her serving level dipped. The best of the action came in the Slam-deciding third set. Krejčíková regained her composure, and Paolini's shaky second serve haunted her at the worst time, as a double fault on break point gave Krejčíková the 4-3 lead in the set.
Paolini battled her heart out to the last, but Krejčíková closed things out on her third attempt at championship point to complete the 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory in a little under two hours. It was a fittingly thrilling finale to remarkable runs authored by both finalists.
At No. 32 coming into the tournament, Krejčíková became the second-lowest ranked player in WTA rankings history (since 1975) to win the Wimbledon women's title. Only fellow Czech Markéta Vondroušová was ranked lower when she won last year at No. 42 in the world.
The Czech connection ran deep in this win. Jana Novotná, the 1998 Wimbledon champion, was top of mind in the immediate aftermath. Novotná laid bare her emotions for all to see after letting a 4-1 lead in the third set slip away against Steffi Graf in the 1993 Wimbledon final. Five years later, she earned her redemptive Wimbledon title.
Years later, Novotná agreed to coach Krejčíková and was an important mentor for her until Novotná died of ovarian cancer at 49 in November 2017. One of the most touching moments on Saturday came when Krejčíková broke down in tears as Wimbledon chairwoman Debbie Jevans pointed out Novotná's name to Krejčíková on the wall of champions.
For the runner-up, one can only hope a Grand Slam triumph comes her way. Standing at just 5-foot-4 with an infectious personality, Paolini captured the hearts of countless tennis fans with her runs at the last two majors.
But this was Krejčíková's day to complete a Wimbledon run in which she doubled her win total for 2024. She has now won 12 total Grand Slam titles — seven in doubles, three in mixed doubles and two in singles. Remarkably, she's lost just one major final in 13 tries between them all.
In her two Grand Slam singles triumphs, Krejčíková caught just about everybody by surprise. If she manages to pull off another major triumph in her career, it's fair to say that no one will be caught off guard by her again.
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