It could reasonably be argued that Ons Jabeur had a relatively easy draw at last year’s Wimbledon, not so in 2023.
In each of the last four rounds she has faced a four-time grand slam champion in Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Petra Kvitova and Bianca Andreescu, at least three of which were reasonable picks to win the tournament at the start of it a fortnight ago. And only one of those matches has not gone the distance.
And yet the ‘Minister for Happiness’ finds herself once again back in the final against a player who could barely have been anyone’s pick to make it to the latter stages in London.
The unexpectedness of Marketa Vondrousova’s run is such that not even her husband, Stepan, decided to attend the tournament. Instead, the couple agreed that he would stay at their home in Prague and work.
On Friday, he flew into London with Vondrousova’s sister while the couple’s cat, Frankie, is now in the hands of the cat sitter ahead of her second grand slam final.
That first final at the French Open in 2019 was no less of a surprise, then because she was merely an up-and-coming teenager, this time because of her previous plight.
Vondrousova was in attendance at Wimbledon a year ago but with a cast around her left wrist following a second surgery on the injured joint. Instead, she watched her friend and doubles partner this year Miriam Kolodziejova try to make her way through the qualifiers.
What followed was a week of being a tourist in London, riding on the London Eye, eating out and going shopping on at least five different occasions.
“After everything I’ve been through, two surgeries, it’s not always easy to come back,” she said. “You don’t know if you can play at this level and if you can be back at the top and back at these tournaments. I just feel grateful to be on a court again, to play without pain.”
With the injury, she tumbled down the world rankings and found herself dumped by her sponsor Nike, a move the company might now be regretting.
And unsurprisingly for a player who has never made it beyond the second round at Wimbledon, she has made her way through to the final relatively under the radar.
Jabeur has grown accustomed to power tennis in her last two matches against last year’s champion Rybakina and the winner of the Australian Open, Sabalenka. This is an entirely different match-up between two aesthetically pleasing styles of play.
It is also a player the Tunisian has curiously struggled against. Twice, they have met this season – including at the Australian Open – and twice she has lost.
“I’m going for my revenge,” she said, albeit light heartedly. “I didn’t win against her this year. She has good hands, she plays very good.
“Honestly, I will try to focus on myself a lot. I’m not sure how she’s going to play second grand slam final. We’re both hungry to win. Whoever deserves it more will win.”
Jabeur has had to recover from losing the first set in three of her last four matches. In her on-court interview immediately after beating Sabalenka, she admitted it was a match she would have lost a year ago and somehow she clung on.
“I’m working on myself like crazy, you have no idea what I’m doing,” she said. “I’m very tough on myself, trying to improve everything. If you are not ready physically, mentally you can’t always win. That’s probably what happened in the last two matches.”
Ahead of her third grand slam final – she also reached last year’s US Open final, she said: “I’m definitely getting closer to winning the grand slam that I always wanted. I would say I always believed but sometimes you would question and doubt if it’s going to happen, if it’s ever going to happen.
“Being in the last stages does help you believe more. For me, I’m going to learn a lot from not only Wimbledon’s final but also the US Open, and give it my best. Maybe this year was all about trying two times and getting it right the third time.”
