LONDON: Czech Marketa Vondrousova left Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur heartbroken once again as she claimed a surprise 6-4, 6-4 victory on Saturday to become the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon women’s singles title.
The 24-year-old left-hander, who a year ago needed wrist surgery, proved too steady for the error-strewn Jabeur who ended up as runner-up as she did in 2022.
Jabeur, beaten by Elena Rybakina last year and by Iga Swiatek in the 2022 US Open final, was bidding to be-come the first Arab player to win a Grand Slam title and the first African woman to lift one of the four major tro-phies.
But she was well below her best with 31 unforced errors killing her chances of a victory that would have been a milestone moment for women’s sport.
The unassuming Vondrousova had managed to win only one match in her previous four visits to Wimbledon and last year came with her wrist in a plaster cast to support a friend and go shopping.
But she beat four seeds during the fortnight, including number four Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals and Ukraine’s crowd darling Elina Svitolina in the semis.
“I don’t know what’s happening right now,” Vondrousova, whose husband Stepan Simek was present for the fi-nal after spending the past two weeks looking after their pet cat Frankie back in Prague, said on court after receiving the Venus Rosewater Dish from Britain’s Princess of Wales.
“This time last year I had a cast on so it’s amazing that I can now stand here and hold this, it’s crazy. I don’t know how I’ve done it.”
Vondrousova, the first player to reach two Grand Slam finals as a non seed having contested the 2019 French Open decider, became the fourth Czech-born player to win the title in the professional era after Martina Navratilo-va, Jana Novotna and Petra Kvitova.
She was also the sixth successive first-time winner of the women’s crown. Agencies
Records set by the 24-year-old Vondrousova with her triumph:-
1 - Marketa Vondrousova is the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon in the Open era.
3 - Vondrousova is the third Czech woman after Jana Novotna and Petra Kvitova to lift the coveted Venus Rosewater Dish.
4 - Vondrousova had just four Tour-level wins on grass before winning Wimbledon. Only Martina Hingis (3) had less when she won the title in 1997.
5 - Vondrousova is the fifth left-handed woman to win The Championships in the Open era after Ann Jones, Martina Navratilova, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber.
5 - Vondrousova defeated five seeded woman to win at SW19. She is the first woman to achieve the feat since Kvitova in 2011.
8 - Vondrousova is the eighth unseeded woman to win a Major in the Open era.
10 - Vondrousova is the 10th lowest-ranked women’s singles Grand Slam champion in the Open era.
24 - Vondrousova is the 24th woman to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon in the Open era.
42 - At 42, Vondrousova is the lowest-ranked women’s singles champion at SW19 since the intro-duction of the WTA Rankings.
59 - Vondrousova is the 59th woman to win a Grand Slam title in the Open era.
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