Vondrousova Downs Jabeur to Win Wimbledon Championship

Marketa Vondrousova is a Wimbledon champion. 

The 24-year-old from the Czech Republic completed her remarkable two-week run in London by defeating Tunisian sixth-seed Ons Jabeur in Saturday’s Ladies’ Singles Championship. The unseeded Vondrousova won her first career major with a 6-4, 6-4 victory on the Centre Court at the All-England Club.

“This seems impossible,” she said. “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.”

Vondrousova came into this year’s Wimbledon Championships with limited expectations, after injuries limited much of her 2022 campaign, and she had never been to a final at a grass court tournament before Saturday. 

But she played nearly flawless tennis to take down Jabeur, who was competing in her second straight Wimbledon final. Vondrousova was seemingly a wall behind the baseline as she had an answer for everything Jabeur threw at her. After falling behind a break in the opening set, Vondrousova won four straight games from 2-4 down to win the first. 

Jabeur tried to turn the tide in the second set and got the early break once again to move to a 3-1 lead. But too many errors continued to do her in and she handed the break right back to her opponent to bring the set on serve. At 4-4 in the second set, she would be broken yet again to give Vondrousova a chance to serve for the Wimbledon championship. 

As she had done throughout her fortnight, Vondrousova calmly stepped to the service line and served it out. 

“My coach told me after the final, he was like, ‘I couldn’t believe how calm you are,” said Vondrousova, the first unseeded Wimbledon champion in the Open Era. “I think that was the main key to this title, that I just kept believing and kept calm.”

For Jabeur, Saturday’s defeat makes her 0-3 in major finals, all of them coming in the last year.

“This is very, very tough. I think this is the most painful loss of my career,” said Jabeur. “But ike every final, like every match I played, I was telling myself, ‘It’s okay, it’s normal.’ I honestly did nothing wrong. I did everything I could.”

Vondrousova now moves up 32 spots in the WTA Rankings top 10th in the world.