Marketa Vondrousova came to the All England Club a year ago unable to play tennis at all. She had a cast on her surgically repaired left wrist, so her visit was limited to sightseeing around London with her sister and cheering for a friend who was competing at Wimbledon.
This trip was a lot more memorable: She is leaving as a Grand Slam champion.
On Saturday, Vondrousova became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon, coming back in each set for a 6-4, 6-4 victory over last year’s runner-up Ons Jabeur in the final.
Photo: Reuters
The last unseeded woman to reach the final at the All England Club in 60 years was 1963 runner-up Billie Jean King, who was seated in the front row of the Royal Box on Saturday alongside Kate, the Princess of Wales.
After the match, King greeted Vondrousova with a hug and told her: “First unseeded ever. I love it.”
“When I was coming back, I didn’t know what’s going to happen, if I can play at that level again,” said Vondrousova, a 24-year-old left-hander from the Czech Republic. “On grass, I didn’t play well before. I think it was the most impossible Grand Slam for me to win, so I didn’t even think of it. When we came, I was just like: ‘Try to win a couple of matches.’ Now this happened. It’s crazy.”
Photo: AFP
So unexpected was her Wimbledon run that the world No. 42 told her husband, Stepan Simek, to stay at home in Prague to look after their cat, Frankie, until a pet sitter was found to allow him to travel to London for the final.
Twelve months after their wedding, Simek cried tears of joy when he saw Vondrousova after the match.
“I think when I came to the box, he cried. I saw him after and he cried a lot,” Vondrousova said. “It’s amazing, tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary... That’s the first emotion I saw from him over eight years. I think he cried on the wedding day also, but that was it.”
With the family cat clearly a major figure in the Vondrousova household, the champion said her pet would get a reward after missing out on the party at the All England Club.
“I’m going to buy her some good fish. She’s with the cat sitter now. My mom is coming tomorrow to watch her,” she said.
Asked she would celebrate her victory, Vondrousova said: “I think I’m going to have some beer maybe. It was an exhausting two weeks, and I was getting myself together the last few days. I was so nervous before this game.”
Vondrousova has a collection of tattoos on her arms. She was thinking of getting another one to celebrate a memorable fortnight in London and said her coach, Jan Hernych, would be getting inked too after a prematch pledge.
“I don’t know, but I made a bet with my coach. He said if I win a Grand Slam he’s going to get one also, so I think we’re going to go tomorrow,” she said.
Meanwhile, Neal Skupski became the second British player in the Open era to win the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon after teaming up with Wesley Koolhof to beat Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-4 in the final.
It wa a first Grand Slam title for Skupski and Koolhof, who lost in last year’s US Open final.
Skupski joined Jonathan Marray as the only British players to win the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon in the professional era, which began in 1968. Marray did so in 2012.
“This feeling at the moment, doesn’t get better,” Skupski said.
Additional reporting by AFP and Reuters
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