De Groot and Griffioen triumph to set up all-Dutch women's final

Diede De Groot of the Netherlands is odds-on favourite to clinch her 12th successive Grand Slam title on Saturday after demolishing her compatriot Aniek van Koot in just 55 minutes.

She will face her compatriot, the veteran Jiske Griffioen, who overcame Japan’s second seeded Yui Kamiji in straight sets.

But should the bad weather force the final to be postponed until Sunday - where a doubles finals is scheduled - there are few players who will be more prepared than 26-year-old De Groot.

“I could potentially play two matches on Sunday,” she said. “But I have played five matches in a day as a junior,” she said. “I didn’t win all five, however, and I was crying at the end of match four. I also played three matches recently in Australia.”

After hanging around until 6pm to begin her match, De Groot was in no doubt what she will be doing tonight. 

“I am going to go and sleep," she added. "I am a big sleeper, I’m usually in bed at 9.15pm, for sure.”

With the women’s singles final scheduled for Saturday, the heavy and widespread Friday rain pre-empted a shift for both semi-finals from the outside courts to the prestigious, and roofed, Court No. 1 showpiece arena.

First up, No. 2 seed Kamiji began as the marginal favourite going into her match against Griffioen with play beginning shortly after 4pm in front of a healthy crowd. Kamiji comes with a curious record at Wimbledon - a singles finalist just once in 2022, although seven crowns in the doubles shows she can play well on grass.

Griffioen has an equally intriguing Wimbledon offering, taking the singles title in 2016 but this was also just her fourth singles tournament here.

It did not speak of the highest confidence on the green stuff from either player and the early play was tentative at best with the left handed Kamiji broken late in the first set, which was taken 6-3 by the third seed.
 
The match was a repeat of the 2022 Wimbledon semi-final won by Kamiji who, after being broken in the first game of the second set, managed to turn the momentum around to lead 5-2.

Griffioen however, was not done and surged back to win the next five games in succession to take her into just her second Wimbledon singles final. The joy that was evident on her face may be short lasting, however, given she will come up against her compatriot, and the supreme winning machine, that is De Groot.

With no disrespect at all to Griffioen, it is nigh on impossible to conceive of any outcome other than another De Groot win.

A win will also take her to 19 Grand Slam singles titles all in, one more than Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in the non-disabled game. 

So how do they all compare?

“We have a draw of eight here so a little bit of a difference," said De Groot. "The amount of focus you have to put in to do it back-to-back though is the same."