History-making Marketa Vondrousova thought Wimbledon win would be ‘impossible’

Marketa Vondrousova savoured her “impossible” Wimbledon triumph while Ons Jabeur cried tears of despair at the most painful defeat of her career.

There have been a string of surprise slam winners in a period of flux for the women’s game but Wimbledon had been the exception until now, with Czech Vondrousova taking advantage of a nervous performance from Jabeur to claim a 6-4 6-4 victory.

The 24-year-old is the first unseeded player to win the women’s singles title here, and it is all the more improbable given she was in London last year as a tourist and with her left wrist in plaster.

“When I was coming back, I didn’t know what’s going to happen, if I can play at that level again,” said Vondrousova, who had won only four tour-level matches on grass prior to arriving at Wimbledon.

“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.”

While Vondrousova is not a household name, she had been in a grand slam final before, at the French Open back in 2019 when she was well beaten by Ashleigh Barty.

She also reached the Olympic final in Tokyo in 2021, having to settle for silver behind Belinda Bencic, but this time there was no denying her the big prize.

Jabeur was the crowd favourite but Vondrousova’s supporters included her husband Stepan Simek, who had passed over the responsibility of looking after their cat Frankie to fly to London for the final.

“I think when I came to the box, he cried,” said Vondrousova. “I saw him after, and he cried a lot. I think that’s the first emotion I saw from him over the eight years. I think he cried on the wedding day also, but that was it.”

The couple will