By Jane Voigt
Marketa Vondrousova attended Wimbledon as a tourist last year, her left wrist in a cast from a recent surgery. This year she became the first unseeded player in the Open Era to win the ladies’ singles championship at Wimbledon. She blasted, drop-shotted, and sliced her way through the draw to reach the final, where she defeated Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-4, on Saturday.
“I had a cast last year [at] this time, so it’s amazing that I can stand here and hold this trophy,” Vondrousova told fans inside Centre Court. “I want to thank my box. My little sister is crying.”
She was not the only person in tears, however. Vondrousova’s victory came at the expense of the odds-on-favorite, Ons Jabeur, the sixth seed. After she was presented with her runner-up trophy, she broke down in tears and the crowd reacted with a standing ovation.
“Thank you for cheering for me,” Jabeur said on court. “”This is the most painful loss of my career. It’s going to be a tough day, but I’m not going to give up. I’m going to come back stronger.”
This is only Vondrousova’s second career title, having won her first at 17 in Biel, Switzerland. In 2019, she reached the final at Roland Garros, but lost to Ash Barty, who has since retired from the game.
“I’m just so grateful and proud of myself,” Vondrousova said on court.
She is the first player to defeat five seeded players since 2021, when fellow Czech compatriot Barbora Krejcikova won Roland Garros. Nonetheless Vondrousova did one better at this Wimbledon. She defeated six seeds: Veronika Kudermetova (No. 12); Donna Vekic (No. 21); Marie Bouzkova (No. 32); Jessica Pegula (No. 4); and Ons Jabeur (No. 6).
Asked how she defeated them, Vondrousova admitted to ESPN, “I really don’t know.”
Vondrousova’s win is even more astonishing when considering her record at Wimbledon and on grass as a whole. In her first three appearances at The All-England Club, she lost in the first round and only advanced to the second round in 2021, when she lost to Emma Raducanu.
Additionally Vondrousova came into this fortnight 10-11 on grass. In contrast, Jabeur came in with the best tour record on grass since the start of 2021: 28 match wins. This was Jabeur’s third major final appearance, which elevated her own hopes and her fans’ expectations of victory.
“Before [the] grass season I said I’ll try to win a couple matches [on grass],” Vondrousova told ESPN, after the awards’ presentation. “I guess I was just open minded.”
Jabeur started the match well, but after missing key opportunities to propel her momentum, her confidence faded and errors piled up. Of the five breaks of serve in the first set, the fifth one — at 4-4 — proved to be the most critical; it put Vondrousova in a position to serve it out, which she did. Although Jabeur battled back for parts of the second set, her technique failed her as she remained unsteady and seemingly unsure of her shot selections. As a result, Vondrousova broke to 5-4 and closed the match 6-4, 6-4.
“I’m a bit sad for Ons,” Vondrousova told ESPN. The two women are friends, much as most players are friends with the self-proclaimed ‘minister of happiness’. “She played some amazing tennis. I told her she’s going to many more [chances] and that I was happy I could be here with her.”
Vondrousova joins a prestigious list of women from the Czech Republic who have hoisted the Venus Rosewater Dish: Jana Novotna (1998); Petra Kvitova (2011, 2014); and Martina Navratilova, who won 9 titles.
“My coach talked with Martina,” she told ESPN. “We [Czech players] have a huge history. It’s crazy that I’m now one of them.”
On Monday, Vondrousova will rise from her current ranking of No. 42 to No. 10, her inaugural foray into the WTA tour’s top 10.
Before Wimbledon got underway, Vondrousova, one of the most inked players on the women’s tour made a bet with her coach. “If I’m going to win a Grand Slam he’s going to get a tattoo. So, I think we’re going to go tomorrow.” Before that though, “I think I’m going to have something to drink.”
Tennis with an Accent 