Markéta Vondroušová beats Ons Jabeur for 1st Grand Slam title

Markéta Vondroušová collapsed onto the court of the All-England Club as soon as she beat Ons Jabeur in the Wimbledon final. It was a moment of pure disbelief for the unseeded 24-year-old from Czechia after she took down the No. 6 Tunisian.

Vondroušová, who a watched Wimbledon as a spectator a year ago, rallied back to win both sets in the 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jabeur. She is the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon and the third Czech woman.

Everything started out well for Jabeur, who jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the first. But seventeen unforced errors by the Tunisan allowed Vondroušová to overcome the deficit and take the one-set lead.

Momentum appeared to shifted dramatically in Jabeur’s favor during the second game of the second set when she hit two sensational shots to get to 40-30 — a backhand winner followed by a forehand winner. Jabeur took a three-sets-to-one lead soon after but, as she did in the first set, Vondroušová re-took control of the match.

Vondroušová won back-to-back games to draw even with Jabeur, then another to up 5-4 before one final game for the title. Finally, she cruised almost perfectly towards victory in the final game to become the first Czech women’s singles Wimbledon winner since Petra Kvitová in 2014.

As for Jabeur, she will once again be a bridesmaid but not the bride. The 28-year-old Tunisian looked defeated at times throughout the match with too many unforced errors. And now, for the fourth time in the past seven Grand Slams, Jabeur failed to win in the title match.

She lost the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals in 2022 and most recently lost in the quarterfinals at the 2023 French Open. But Jabeur began to exorcise those demons throughout this tournament after beat three top-10 opponents on her path to the final (the first since Serena Williams) which included a quarterfinal win over Elena Rybakina, who beat Jabeur at Wimbledon a year ago.

But it wasn’t enough, and Jabeur didn’t try to hide her sadness after the loss. She also didn’t shy away from hope, either.

Vondroušová had a lot of positive experiences against Jabeur before this match. She had already beat Jabeur twice this year: In the third round at Indian Wells in two sets and in the second round of the Australian Open in three sets.

The win was still a shock for a player who hadn’t advanced past the fourth round of a Grand Slam since 2019, when lost to Ashleigh Barty at the French Open at the age of 19.

What’s next for Vondroušová? A new tattoo. She told reporters after the match that her coach said he’d get a tattoo with her when she won a Grand Slam. And now, Vondroušová has.