Marketa Vondrousova continued her remarkable return to top level tennis on Thursday with a gritty straight sets win over Elina Svitolina to reach the women's singles final.
The 24-year-old Czech, who returned to the circuit from injury at the start of the year, won 6-3, 6-3 to advance to her first final at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
"I'm just very happy," she said at the end of the encounter on Centre Court. "Elina is such a fighter and a great person. It was a tough match."
Vondrousova, appearing in the famous arena for the first time, betrayed few nerves. She won her opening service game for the loss of one point. But Svitolina, fresh from her quarter-final triumph over the top seed Iga Swiatek, was equally confident.
Vondrousova’s first forehand winner gave her the break to lead 3-2 but a sloppy service game in which she threw in two double faults extinguished her advantage and brought it back to 3-3 after 20 minutes.
But Svitolina also faltered. She lost seven games on the trot to give Vondrousova the set at 6-3 and a 4-0 lead in the second.
Just as a rout loomed, Svitolina came back to 4-3. But serving for parity, the 28-year-old Ukrainian cracked.
It was the strangest of 5-3 leads. Within 25 minutes, the match had veered from a probable thrashing to a dogfight to a possible sudden triumph.
"When she started coming back, I had to stay focused and fight for every point," Vondrousova added.
She will play the winner of the match between the second seed Aryna Sabalenka and last year's beaten finalist Ons Jabeur.
