Kadlec, match point down, on a second serve
Third game, 18-19 against Austria. Match point for the United States. Kadlec is serving, and her first serve is gone. If she misses the second one, the match is over and she has ended her own title defence with a fault.
She goes for a reverse cut. Hui and Lowe never touch it. 19-19.
Austria keeps the serve, and Kadlec breaks through a second time. 20-19. Then the point that makes it 21-19, and Kadlec and Layburn, world champions from Guildford in 2024, are in the final again.
Jakub's verdict on the four matches, written down as it happened: the best of the round, and an unbelievable comeback in game three.
Ten centimetres
The men's semi-final between Seiffarth and Siemer and the Italian pair Bazzani and Borsotti produced the same situation with the roles reversed. Germany faced match point in the second game and was about ten centimetres from being out of the championship: the ball landed out after an Italian defensive touch, and Italy then made an attacking error. Second game saved. Third game reached.
Ten centimetres is the whole article. Everything below happened only because that ball was long.
Siemer answers, twice
17-17 in the decider. Siemer serves at Bazzani and aces him. 18-17 Germany, and Germany holds the break.
Later, at 19-18, Siemer is on the line again and again on a second serve. It comes back, there is a defensive touch, and the rally that follows is long. Germany takes it, 20-18. That serve and that rally are the case for calling Siemer the best player in the world right now. That is a view, and it is Jakub's, not a table.
Siemer has the record to argue with, though: he is the reigning individual world champion, from 2024, won with a different partner.
Borsotti saved one, Bazzani missed the sixth
Italy lost the same match twice on the same shot.
A Borsotti double fault made it 19-17 and handed Germany two balls for the match. Then he lost the serve altogether: three failed serves in a row, and the body language, in Jakub's live note, was not great.
Back at 17 against 19, Borsotti produced one extraordinary second serve and an offensive touch, and Italy was alive at 19-18. Germany then gave away the first match point with a long rally that went to Italy, 20-19.
Second match point. Italy needs a break. Bazzani serves, on a run of five failed serves. Swing or not swing.
He missed the sixth, and the match was over. Two decisions of a few centimetres in one match: Germany's went long and survived, Italy's never landed.
The favourites did what favourites do
The other men's semi-final is the one the model got right. Nelson and Rose beat the second German pair, Bichler and Nerad, in three games, and Nelson and Rose were on top of the forecast this blog published on 1 September: first in the field, 63.1 percent for gold, Nelson with the highest individual rating in the whole draw at 2,045 and Rose fourth at 1,867. No other pair had two players in the top four.
That forecast gave the three European semi-finalists 7.8 percent of the gold between them, and Seiffarth and Siemer 2.6 percent of it. They are the pair standing between the Americans and the title.
Roundnet Germany streamed the German-Italian semi-final. Around 500 people were watching it, counter reading rather than platform statistic.
How the finals were set
The men's final is set: Seiffarth and Siemer against Nelson and Rose. Germany against the favourite, ten centimetres after the exit.
The women's final is set. Kadlec and Layburn against Amsler and Kunzelmann, Austria against Switzerland: the reigning champions against the pair that put out Pernigo and Zanella of Italy. Switzerland won the mixed title at the last championship in Guildford.
Four semi-finals, three third games, and four second serves that decided them. Every player who stepped to that line had two chances at it. On Friday, only the second one mattered.