Marketa Vondrousova stuns Ons Jabeur to become Wimbledon champion with unseeded Czech victories in straight sets 6-4, 6-4
- The first set saw five breaks in total with Jabeur committing 15 unforced errors as he struggled from the start.
- Nerves seemed to get the better of the favourite, as she lost for the third time in a Grand Slam final.
- The game ended 6-4, 6-4 as both players show their emotions in the post-game presentation.
- Latest Wimbledon 2023 news including schedule, travel updates and results
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World number 42 Marketa Vondrousova became another unexpected Wimbledon women’s champion when she clinched an oddly undulating final amid a series of errors by Ons Jabeur.
The popular Tunisian was left deeply frustrated again with a third Grand Slam final on the horizon to lose 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 20 minutes.
In an unusual move, it was decided to close the roof due to wind, rather than rain, and the added control provided would help the more expansive Czech, who in previous matches, such as against Elina Svitolina, had played noticeably better when protected. of the interruption of the elements.
Jabeur made too many mistakes, and you’ll wonder what could have been against a conservative opponent who hit ten winners in the two sets.
The Princess of Wales was present, with no chance that she would have to hand the trophy over to a Belarusian. In her place, she would be the world number 42 or last year’s beaten finalist who had emerged on the field after a relatively mediocre year.
Marketa Vondrousova became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon by beating Ons Jabeur in straight sets
Jabeur fell just short of her bid to become the first African woman to win the title, as she lost on Center Court.
The Princess of Wales was on hand to hand out the trophies on Center Court following the conclusion of the match.
Jabeur had beaten some big hitters en route to the final and this would be a different challenge against the lanky lefty who relies more on her use of angles and spin than crunching the ball across the pitch.
The Tunisian looked a bit nervous in the early points, but quickly seemed calmer temporarily as she forced an early break by hitting the Czech’s forehand deep.
The lead was short-lived as Vondrousova rallied amid some remarkably long rallies that suggested the crowd would get something of value for the hefty £255 per ticket they had paid.
Breaks were traded as, strangely, both players were earning more points on the return than on the serve. Jabeur slid to 4-5 as her first-serve percentage dipped below 50, and she seemed increasingly stressed by the left-footed shots coming her way, struggling to land her groundstrokes as she dropped the first set.
Things quickly fell apart when he was broken from 1-0 up in the second set and instead chose to walk around the net on the opposite side of his chair.
The crowd was trying to get her up and it finally seemed to work when she stopped missing and hit a couple of glorious backhands to break back.
In this oddly swinging encounter, she appeared to have bounced back at 3-1, but again the Czech came back with Jabeur’s body language noticeably dropped once more.
At 4-4, she made a succession of misses to get breaks, and Vondrousova served with a relative lack of drama, hitting a forehand volley on her second match point.
“This is very hard, I think it’s the most painful loss of my career,” he said after the game. “It’s been a difficult day, but I’m not going to give up, I’m going to come back stronger, it was an incredible tournament for me. I wish I could have continued until the end,” Jabeur said tearfully on court. .
“After everything that had happened, I had a cast on my wrist last year, tennis is crazy,” said Vondrousova, who was in London as a tourist a year ago.
