We now know the two players in the final for the gentlemen’s singles draw and ladies’ singles draw at Wimbledon. On the men’s side, there will be a rematch of the 2023 Wimbledon final as world number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia will take on world number three Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. Then on the ladies’s side, we will have a first time Wimbledon champion. Seventh seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy faces 31st ranked Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
Novak Djokovic
Djokovic has won 24 grand slam singles titles and is now searching for his 25th. On Friday in the semifinals, he beat the 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy rather routinely, 6-4, 7-6, 6-4. Djokovic won 18 more points than his opponent (116 for Djokovic and 98 f0r Musetti). The Italian generated some momentum early in the second set with a break after losing the first set, but was unable to generate a sustained push.
One key statistic was receiving points won as Djokovic had 49 and Musetti had 36. Djokovic put a lot more pressure on Musetti when the Italian was serving than Musetti did when Djokovic was serving.
Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz was challenged significantly more against Daniil Medvedev of Russia in his Friday semifinal match than Djokovic was against Musetti. After a relatively slow start, Alcaraz prevailed in four sets, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Alcaraz broke Medvedev six times in 15 chances, and had only two double faults compared to six for Medvedev. Head-to-head, Djokovic has won three of five meetings against Alcaraz.
Jasmine Paolini
Paolini has qualified for her second grand slam final of 2024. Earlier this year, she lost 6-2, 6-1 to Poland’s Iga Swiatek at the French Open in a match that saw Swiatek take care of business in only 68 minutes. Now, if you go by seeding, Paolini would be favoured as she is 24 places higher than her Czech counterpart. However, we will need to see how much energy Paolini has as she needed two hours and 51 minutes to beat Donna Vekic of Croatia 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 on Thursday. It was the longest women’s semifinal in Wimbledon history.
Barbora Krejcikova
Unlike Paolini, Krejcikova won her grand slam singles opportunity as she beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the 2021 French Open final. On Thursday, Krejcikova delivered a significant upset, as she beat the fourth seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, the 2022 Wimbledon champ, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Rybakina made 37 unforced errors compared to 25 for Krejcikova.
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