Barbara Krejcikova stuns former champion Elena Rybakina to reach first Wimbledon final
Barbara Krejcikova is through to the Wimbledon final
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Barbara Krejcikova has knocked out former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in a huge upset to reach the women's singles final on Saturday.
While a number of the top seeds have tumbled out of Wimbledon, Rybakina has been rampant on her way to the semi-finals.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion dropped just one set on her way to the final four and her thumping victory over Caroline Wozniacki on Saturday immediately made her the strong favourite to go all the way.
However, Rybakina was up against an opponent in Krejcikova that she had yet to beat heading into the semi-final.
Barbara Krejcikova is through to the Wimbledon final
REUTERS
The 28-year-old was making just the second Grand Slam semi-final appearance of her career.
The duo have only faced off twice before with Krejcikova coming out on top in both occasions, although the last meeting was back in 2022 and both were tight matches.
Krejickova had also dropped just one set all tournament having earned impressive straight-set victories over Danielle Collins and Jelena Ostapenko.
Rybakina was still the strong favourite heading into the match and she wasted no time in stamping her authority on the match by breaking her opponent twice to open up a 4-0 lead to start the match.
The Kazakhstan star then suffered a dip on her own serve, but she still had enough to take the opening set and put one foot into another Wimbledon final.
Krejcikova had shown enough towards the end of the first set to suggest it was not going to be a walkover for the No 4 seed.
The world No 32 managed to dig deep and save break points in each of her first three service games to begin the second set.
And she made Rybakina pay for not taking her opportunities by earning the first break of the second set before eventually forcing a decider.
Elena Rybakina was seen as the favourite to progress
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It set up another third set between the two rivals with the Centre Court ticketholders getting their money's worth from the two women's semi-finals.
There was barely anything to separate the two of them as the two big hitters went toe-to-toe from the back of the court.
There was only one break point opportunity in the entire set and it fell to Krejcikova in the seventh game and she Czech star made it count.
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Barbara Krejcikova has won all three matches against Elena Rybakina
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She consolidated the break to put her one game away from the Wimbledon final and Rybakina simply had no answer.
There will now be a first-time Wimbledon champion crowned on Saturday when Krejcikova faces off against Jasmine Paolini.
The only previous meeting between the two came at this Australian Open back in 2018 when Krejcikova dropped just three games on her way to a comfortable win.
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