Historic matches highlight the final weekend of Wimbledon

The GIST: Twelve days, 672 matches, and countless strawberries and creams later, the Wimbledon Championships — the penultimate Grand Slam of the season — are coming to a close, but not before history is made on the grass.

The men’s singles semis feature familiar faces: No. 5 Daniil Medvedev and reigning Wimbledon champ No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz meet today at 8:30 a.m. ET for a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Alcaraz won in three sets.

• While the reigning champ has been tested throughout the tourney, Medvedev also needed five sets to beat No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the semis. It’s really anyone’s match in the quest to reach Sunday’s championship.

• Meanwhile, Serbian No. 2 Novak Djokovic walked over to a record-tying 13th Wimbledon semi, where he’ll face Italian No. 25 Lorenzo Musetti, who outlasted American No. 13 Taylor Fritz in five sets to reach his first-ever Grand Slam semifinal.

The women’s singles will see a different champ for the eighth straight year: There must be something in the Italian water because Italy’s No. 7 Jasmine Paolini finds herself in rare company, reaching back-to-back Grand Slam finals. The 28-year-old survived the longest Wimbledon women’s semifinal, a grueling two-hour, 51-minute three-set win over Croatia’s Donna Vekić yesterday.

• She’ll face Czech No. 31 Barbora Krejčiková, who came back from a set down to defeat the 2022 Wimbledon champion and heavy tournament favorite, Kazakhstan’s No. 4 Elena Rybakina in an inspiring three sets.

• It all comes down to tomorrow’s final, where either Paolini or Krejčiková will win their first-ever Wimbledon title. Simply smashing.