Jelena Ostapenko hits a tennis ball as if there is no tomorrow. When she won the Roland-Garros singles title in 2017, she struck a whopping 54 winners and made as many errors on the slow and languid Parisian clay.
The thrill-a-minute, high-risk strategy has since carried her to quarterfinal or better at each of the other three Slams. But on Wednesday on Court No.1, Barbora Krejcikova’s controlled aggression proved the perfect antidote as the Czech triumphed 6-4, 7-6(4) to enter her maiden Wimbledon singles semifinal.
It was a sweet result for Krejcikova, who, after reaching the Australian Open quarters earlier this year, spent five months battling injuries and winning just three matches. She will now play 2022 champion Elena Rybakina — who blasted past Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2 — for a spot in the final.
“I don’t have any words to say,” Krejcikova said, during the on-court interview. “I had decided before the match that I am going to leave everything I have on the court and I am happy I did it. It’s a great moment in my tennis career.”
The 28-year-old was at her best in the opening set. It was the first day after many when play on the show courts didn’t start with roofs closed. Soon Wimbledon park was bathed in sunlight and by the time the crowd could bask a bit outdoors and settle into their seats, Krejcikova had raced to a 3-1 lead. She won 20 of her 23 service points and all 12 in her last three holds to pocket the set.
The Latvian’s power and panache didn’t bother her. Neither was she distracted by Ostapenko’s return stance, wherein the latter pranced like a football goalkeeper ahead of their spot-kick routine. With a high backswing, Krejcikova caressed the ball, into zones from where Ostapenko could do nothing.
But in the second set, Krejcikova’s game regressed to the mean and Ostapenko did not lift hers. What ensued was a scrap. The pair traded breaks and fought each other to a standstill at 4-4.
Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova in action during her quarter final match against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko. | Photo Credit: REUTERS
Krejcikova struggled with her timing and also seemed to lose her footing at the baseline quite a number of times. The 2021 French Open champion even fluffed the opportunity to serve out the match after having broken Ostapenko to 5-4.
However, she summoned her best game just in time, holding to love to take the set into a tie-break and running up a 6-3 lead once there. She eventually clinched the contest on her second match-point when Ostapenko sent a forehand return long.
Elsewhere, Australian Alex de Minaur was forced to withdraw from his quarterfinal against second seed Novak Djokovic because of the hip injury that he suffered in the closing stages of his fourth-round victory over Arthur Fils.
“It’s no secret that this was the biggest match of my career,” de Minaur said later. “But the problem with me playing is that one stretch, one slide, could make this injury go from three to six weeks to four months. It was too much to risk.”
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