Markéta Vondroušová beats Ons Jabeur to make Wimbledon history

Marketa Vondrousova had overcome the odds throughout the last fortnight at Wimbledon and the Czech did so again in the women’s final on Saturday, beating favorite Ons Jabeur to become the first unseeded woman in the Open Era to win the famous tournament.

The world No. 42, who was playing in her second grand slam final, beat the No. 6 seed 6-4 6-4 on Centre Court to make history, falling onto the grass as the enormity of her achievement hit her.

Not since Serena Williams in 2018, when the American was ranked 181 in the world, had a female player ranked so low in the world reached a Wimbledon final. The last unseeded woman to do so was Billie Jean King in 1963.

Last year Vondroušová was in London as a tourist, still recovering from surgery to her left wrist. And at the start of Wimbledon, seven months on from her most recent injury comeback, no one had expected her to be competing in the championship match, not even the player herself whose husband had remained in the Czech Republic until the final to look after their cat, Frankie.

But Jabeur became the fifth seeded player to fall to the 24-year-old in this tournament as her unpredictability proved difficult for her opponents to overcome, with the Tunisian particularly struggling despite having numerous opportunities to take control of the match.

“Tennis is crazy,” said Vondroušová, a former junior No. 1 and runner-up at the 2019 French Open, in her on-court interview. “Yeah, I really don’t know what is happening now, it’s an amazing feeling.”