Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, one of the most unlikely Wimbledon winners, is unlikely to be there.
On Saturday, Vondrousova defeated Ons Jabeur, a game-changer from Tunisia and a huge favourite, in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, surprising herself, her family and friends, and the tennis world in the process.
24-year-old Vondrousova became the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon and the latest in a long line of Czech-born women to win the sport’s most important trophy. This dates back to Martina Navratilova, who dominated Wimbledon in the 1980s after Navratilova defected to the United States.
Like Navratilova, who watched the game from a box, Vondrousova is a left-hander with a nasty slice serve that she used throughout the afternoon at the most tense moments as Jabeur attempted to take control of the game or make another comeback to start.
The similarities to Navratilova, an aggressive serve-and-volleyball player who got into the sport as a teenager, mostly end there.
Vondrousova, who won an error-free match that made up for the lack of quality with an upset, is now the ultimate under-the-radar player after shattering three-on-three tennis fairy tales. She defeated Naomi Osaka at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics just days after Osaka lit the Olympic flame as the favorite to win a gold medal on home soil.
On Thursday, Vondrousova defeated Elina Svitolina, a new Ukrainian mother who made a valiant run to the semifinals and inspired her country’s people to defend themselves against the Russian invasion.
It was Jabeur’s turn on Saturday afternoon, her dream shattered by Vondrousova’s tricky and unorthodox play in a tournament Vondrousova said was impossible to win given her meager track record on grass.
“When we came, I just thought, ‘Try to win a few games,'” Vondrousova said. “Now this has happened, it’s crazy,” Vondrousova said.
She’s had plenty of people asking the same thing, considering she had a cast on her wrist after surgery at Wimbledon last year. This time, Vondrousova’s husband decided not to watch her play here until Saturday, opting instead to stay at home and take care of their hairless Sphynx cat.
After Vondrousova defeated Svitolina in the semifinals, Stepan Simek went in search of a cat sitter and took a flight to watch his wife play in the Wimbledon final. On Sunday they wanted to celebrate their first anniversary.
“One day we will have grandchildren and I’m just looking forward to the day when I can tell the story of how their grandmother won Wimbledon,” said Simek.
Vondrousova’s best friend and doubles partner, Miriam Kolodziejova, said she doesn’t think Vondrousova can win the singles title.
“It’s like a dream for us,” she said.
For Jabeur, losing her second consecutive Wimbledon final to an opponent who had accomplished far less than other women she defeated en route to the abyss of tennis history was nothing short of heartbreaking. Jabeur has now lost three of the last five Grand Slam finals, narrowly falling short of becoming the first woman of Arab descent and African descent to win the major championships in tennis.
Like most tennis players, she has long dreamed of winning Wimbledon and last year used an image of the women’s trophy as her phone’s lock screen.
Jabeur started quickly and repeatedly broke a nervous Vondrousova’s serve in the opener. She played strong from the start but held a 4-2 lead in the first set when she started to unravel, sending her forehand into the net and her backhand floating past the baseline.
Before she knew it, Jabeur was down a set and had lost her serve early in the second set. For her part, Vondrousova did everything she could: keeping the ball in play, throwing her curling and spin shots that were very different from the power Jabeur was facing in her recent games.
Jabeur consolidated and even took a 3-1 lead in the second set, but again lost her ability to recover, struggling to find the court and sending too many balls into the middle of the net. They lost five of their last six games.
Vondrousova ended Jabeur’s nightmarish afternoon with a running backhand volley into open field and another woman from the Czech Republic was the Wimbledon champion, stunning anyone who could have imagined the scenario but not starring Vondrousova.
“My coach said to me after the final, ‘I couldn’t believe how calm you are,'” said Vondrousova. “That was the master key to this title.”
As the ball twice bounced well out of her reach, Jabeur, known as the ‘Minister of Happiness’ for her almost always beaming demeanor, removed her headscarf and began her slow, sad and increasingly familiar trek to the net.
Vondrousova was a little late. By the end of the last point, she had collapsed in the grass. She rose to hug Jabeur and soon she was back in the middle of the pitch, kneeling down and trying to figure out how she’d managed that unlikely run. Jabeur sat in her chair and wiped away her tears.
There was more to come during the trophy ceremony as Jabeur held the runner-up plate in one hand and covered her eyes and nose with the other.
“This is the most painful loss of my career,” she said, before attempting to channel whatever positivity she could muster.
“I’m not going to give up and come back stronger,” she told a crowd who were finally able to yell for her like she’d been wanting all afternoon.
For Vondrousova and Czech tennis, the celebrations had only just begun. The Czech Republic, with a population of approximately 10.5 million people, has become a factory for women’s tennis unlike anything the sport has ever seen. Among the top 50 are eight Czech women, most of them, like Vondrousova, in their twenties and younger.
When the tournament started, Petra Kvitova, who was ranked No. 10 in the world, looked like the most likely Czech finalist. Kvitova was a two-time Wimbledon winner in 2011 and 2014 and had won a grass tournament in Berlin a few weeks earlier.
Vondrousova had won just two grass games and was banned from playing Wimbledon for two years. A month ago, however, Vondrousova witnessed Karolina Muchova, another talented, understated Czech with a game defying this era of power tennis, narrowly fail to win the French Open. She and Muchova are members of the same tennis club in their homeland, Vondrousova said. And she cried as Muchova lost in three sets to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
Watching Muchova inspired Vondrousova, who reached the French Open final in 2019 at just 19 years old. Muchova’s career was also marred by injuries, but she was now playing on one of the sport’s biggest stages.
Like Muchova, Vondrousova initially didn’t know if doctors could solve her wrist problem. The injury forced her to sit out for a long time and Simek said it made her appreciate tennis more.
“You just can’t play, playing tennis is work, you have to enjoy it, you have to love it,” said Simek. “She really enjoys it and loves the game. She even enjoys watching the game and I don’t think many players enjoy it that much.”
At Wimbledon, Muchova lost in the first round, but Vondrousova began a steady march through seven opponents, including five seeded players and several including Jabeur, who was known for her skill on grass. In the quarterfinals, Jessica Pegula had a game point and led 4-1 in the final set before Vondrousova caught fire and won the last five games.
Then came her final two games against opponents playing for much bigger causes than herself, a weight that can both energize and empower a player, but also debilitate and drain.
Against Vondrousova, both Svitolina and Jabeur came tight and flat on Center Court, shadows of the players who had wowed crowds and promised to make a comeback that would be talked about for years, if not decades. On the other side of the net was Vondrousova, a player best known for the body art on her arms, who had made a bet with her coach Jan Mertl, a former Czech player, that he would win a Grand Slam if she would win a grand slam tattoo commemorating the triumph.
Vondrousova held her winner’s plate and said they were going to the tattoo parlor on Sunday.
David Waldstein contributed to the reporting.