In the four years since Marketa Vondrousova first reached a grand slam final, at the French Open, women’s tennis has seen significant changes. As many of the top players of previous generations have retired, new contenders have emerged and others have already fallen. In the tour’s ever-changing landscape, it still was not clear whether this talented, unique lefty from the Czech Republic would fulfil the early promise she showed as a 19-year-old in Paris.
Her long-awaited breakthrough has come under surprising circumstances, on a surface that she had a dire 2-10 record on at the beginning of the grass-court season last month. No matter, on Saturday afternoon, the unseeded Czech completed a magical fortnight by defeating Ons Jabeur, the sixth seed, 6-4, 6-4 to become a grand slam champion for the first time at Wimbledon.
With her victory, the world No 42 is Wimbledon’s first unseeded women’s champion in the Open era having defeated five seeded opponents en route to the title. Vondrousova is also the latest in the unending series of Czech female players to establish themselves at the top of the sport and the third Czech Wimbledon champion after Jana Novotna and Petra Kvitova.
The spectacle, though, was as much about Jabeur crumbling under the weight of the occasion as Vondrousova’s cunning approach and nerve. Jabeur had played the best tennis of her life to return to the final, snatching incredible wins over title favourites Kvitova, Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka.
But as she rounded on the final as the heavy favourite to become the first African woman or Arab player to win a grand slam title, playing for so much more than herself, Jabeur could not manage to find her best tennis under pressure.
Matchups are everything in tennis, and when her game is in full flow Vondrousova can be excruciating to play against. Her defence, left-handed angles, variety and her ability to keep the ball so low on the skidding grass presented a completely different challenge to the three consecutive enormous ball strikers Jabeur had faced before her. She not only constantly forced the Tunisian to take on so many more balls to finish points, but she constantly put them in awkward positions.
“Marketa just put the ball in, slices a lot,” said Jabeur. “I believe that it was a completely different match from the last three that I had. So maybe adapting to her rhythm was very difficult for me. Plus the pressure and the stress of the final.”
In her third grand slam final over the past five major tournaments, Jabeur seemed to settle quickly as she broke serve in the opening game. But Vondrousova was right behind her. As the Czech scrambled, retrieved and constantly made her opponent’s life difficult, Jabeur’s errors began to flow. Her feet were frozen to the spot, unable to make the required adjustments. From 4-2 up, the 28-year-old conceded four games in a row to hand over the first set meekly.
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Despite taking a bathroom break between sets, Jabeur simply could not shake off her tightness and errors, with the Tunisian immediately dropping her serve and trailing 1-0. But she feathered an angled backhand passing shot beyond Vondrousova and then pulled her way back to deuce. Having found her feet, Jabeur reeled off three games to force a 3-1 lead by playing crisp, attacking tennis.
But she could not maintain the intensity and the tight errors continued to pile up, many of them provoked by Vondrousova’s defence, before they completely overwhelmed her. From 3-1 up, Jabeur again crumbled. She conceded five of the last six games as the intelligent, steady 24-year-old closed off the match with a brilliant lunging volley winner to win her first major title.
As Vondrousova began her unlikely title run two weeks ago, her husband, Stepan, had stayed home to look after their cat, Frankie. He had remained there until she booked her spot in the final. Ignoring superstition, the couple found a cat-sitter and he flew to London to join her box. “Tomorrow is the first anniversary of our wedding, so this is the present,” she said.
Since her appearance in the 2019 Roland Garros final, Vondrousova’s stop-start career has taken her in many different directions. She is the 2020 Olympic silver medallist, having defeated Naomi Osaka in Tokyo, but her attempts to become a consistent contender have been hurt by numerous injuries, including two wrist surgeries in her young career.
The first surgery came in 2019, shortly after that first big run, robbing her of the chance to consolidate it. Her most recent surgery, last April, left her in a cast as the rest of her rivals competed at Wimbledon. The Czech returned at the end of 2022 after six months having gained a number of new tattoos. Her victory means that she will add another.
“I made a bet with my coach that if I won a grand slam he’s going to get one also. I think we’ll go tomorrow,” said Vondrousova.
Her joy was contrasted with the pain of Jabeur. After reaching her third grand slam final, she had presented herself with by far her biggest opportunity against a less experienced player. When the moment came, she did not have the nerve to finish it off. As Jabeur collected her runner-up trophy and lifted it into the air, she broke down into tears. “I think this is the most painful loss of my career,” she said.
