Rybakina the favourite ahead of women's semi-finals

LONDON : The Wimbledon women's singles semi-final take centre stage at the All England Club on Thursday.    

Former champion Elena Rybakina is the highest seed in the women's semi-finals where the number four will take on former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova.

In the other semi-final in-form Italian Jasmine Paolini, the seventh seed, faces experienced Croatian Donna Vekic.

PAOLINI AIMING TO CONTINUE DREAM RUN

Until arriving in Eastbourne this year the 28-year-old Paolini had never won a Tour-level match on grass. Now she has become the first Italian woman to reach the semi-finals of the women's singles at Wimbledon.

The story could even better too as the ever-smiling French Open runner-up is playing unseeded Vekic in the last four.

She demolished American Emma Navarro in the quarter-final on Tuesday and will be full of confidence when she walks out on to Centre Court on Thursday.

"Maybe I didn't realise before, but my coach was telling me that I could play well here. I wasn't believing too much," Paolini said of her sudden liking for grass.

"I felt great in Eastbourne. I was hitting the ball well. I was repeating to myself, okay, it's nice to play on grass."

World number 37 Vekic will be a tough obstacle, though.

Also aged 28, her career has been a rollercoaster with injuries ever-present and she almost pulled out of the French Open feeling that she needed a break from the sport.

"It's crazy how in tennis things turn so fast," she said.

Though she might be the outsider of the four survivors, Vekic will take inspiration from last year when Marketa Vondrousova became the first unseeded player in the professional era to win the Wimbledon women's singles title.

RYBAKINA HOPING TO SERVE UP ANOTHER TITLE

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