Wimbledon is approaching the business end of the tournament and the womens’ single’ has reached the semi-final stage.
For two of the remaining four, a date with All England Club destiny is on offer as they can book a place in Saturday’s final.
Jasmine Paolini is the form player left in the tournament and can book her place in a second successive Grand Slam decider by seeing off unseeded Donna Vekic.
Elsewhere, Elena Rybakina is fancied to force her way into another Wimbledon decider but the 2022 champ may have to work hard.
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Paolini to drive into second Slam decider
Paolini was a finalist at the French Open in Paris last month where she went down to clay-court specialist Iga Swiatek.
The Italian, aged 28, has been enjoying a stellar few months. She claimed her second career title on the WTA Tour at the Dubai Championships in February and has risen from 31st in the world rankings late last year to currently sit seventh.
She is, to put it mildly, in the form of her life and is fully expected to overcome unseeded world number 37 Vekic and take a spot in the SW19 decider.
Paolini has won four of her five Wimbledon contests in straight sets already. These players have met three times and the Italian has won two of them in straight sets.
Vekic will be striding out in her maiden Grand Slam semi-final and the pressure could soon tell in what promises to be the toughest task she has faced so far in London.
She has gone to three sets in four of her five matches and this one might be a bridge too far.
Rybakina should be too strong
Rybakina has no shortage of experience and the 2022 winner is on course to return to the final.
The 25-year-old is playing her sixth Wimbledon and has now managed three last-eight appearances or better on the trot. The best of those saw her recover from a set down to beat Ons Jabeur in the final here two years ago.
Four of her five wins here this year have come in straight sets, and she has only dropped nine games in the three most recent of those after Elina Svitolina was beaten 6-3 6-2 in the quarters.
Krejcikova has been serving well and the world number 25 has a 60 per cent first serve success-rate this season, leading to her winning almost 68 per cent of those points.
Those stats will surely help her to hold her own in this contest and at least make it competitive. She’s already contested five tie-breakers at Wimbledon and another one would set this contest well on track to require more than 21.5 games to find a winner.
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