Wimbledon 2024: Elena Rybakina and Barbora Krejcikova to meet in semi-final after both win in straight sets

Elena Rybakina stormed into the Wimbledon semi-finals with a comprehensive 6-3 6-2 victory over Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.

She will now face Wednesday’s other quarter-final winner, Barbora Krejcikova, in Thursday’s semi-final after the Czech beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 7-6(4).

Donna Vekic will meet Jasmine Paolini in Thursday’s other semi-final.

Russian-born Rybakina of Kazakhstan headed into the quarter-finals as the highest seeded player left in the competition, with Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff already out and Aryna Sabalenka having withdrawn due to a shoulder injury.

She overcame early adversity when Svitolina broke her serve in the first game of the match, breaking back immediately for 1-1 and taking the first set 6-3.

A show of outstanding serving from the 2022 Wimbledon champion followed in the second set, which she won 6-2 to wrap up a dominant victory in the sunshine on Centre Court against one of last year’s losing semi-finalists.

A semi-final showing represents Rybakina’s second best-ever performance at SW19, only bettered by her run to glory in 2022 when she defied her seeding of 17th to win the title with victory over third seed Ons Jabeur in the final.

Krejcikova, meanwhile, had been in horrendous form leading into Wimbledon, knocked out of the French Open by the unseeded Viktorija Golubic in straight sets, but she has now reached only her second-ever Grand Slam semi-final. The other came in 2021, when she sprung a surprise by winning the title at Roland Garros.

Czech 31st seed Krejcikova was comfortably the better player on Court 1 as she set up a semi-final against Rybakina with victory over Ostapenko of Latvia.

Ostapenko, the 13th seed, got just 49 per cent of first serves in, and the 27-year-old was unable to match her best Wimbledon showing, as a semi-finalist back in 2018.

“Really pleased with the way I played today,” said Rybakina on-court afterwards. “Thank you so much guys for coming and supporting us. It’s always tough to play against Elina, she’s a great player, great fighter. No matter the score, it is not as easy as it might look like.

“Of course, I have such amazing memories from 2022 and I’m just enjoying every time I step on the court, especially when I play good. It’s just really amazing.

“I have an aggressive style of game, I have a huge serve so it’s a big advantage.”

Asked whether she accepts the tag of now being favourite to win Wimbledon, given the semi-final line-up, Rybakina replied: “I don’t like it, to be honest.”

An overjoyed Krejcikova said: “I don't have any words right now. Just a minute ago, I told myself that I'm going to leave everything I have [on the court], and I'm really happy that I did.

“It's an unbelievable moment that I'm experiencing right now in my tennis career.”

Krejcikova had battled illness and won just three tour matches in a testing spell between February and June.

“It was a very, very difficult period,” she added. “There have been many doubts from inside, but also from the outside world. I'm super happy that I never give up and that I'm standing here right now and that I qualified to be in the semi-finals.”