Tennis For the first time in 60 years
Vondrousova achieves a historic achievement at Wimbledon
Status: 10:13 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Marketa Vondrousova is in the Wimbledon final
Source: dpa/John Walton
The women’s competition in Wimbledon has a few surprises in store this year. The Ukrainian Jelina Switolina plays herself into the hearts of the fans, but just fails. Her conqueror writes sports history.
After reaching the final again in Wimbledon, the Tunisian Ons Jabeur was celebrated by the spectators. Ukraine’s Yelina Switolina, on the other hand, missed out on the final and left London in tears. The 28-year-old clearly lost 3: 6, 3: 6 in the semi-finals of the grass classic on Thursday against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova. The pressure to make their compatriots suffering from the Russian war of aggression happy seemed too great for them this time.
“I’m disappointed with my performance today,” said the Ukrainian. “Overall it was a good tournament. But I didn’t play well today,” said Switolina, who kept fighting back tears at the press conference. Vondrousova, on the other hand, is the first unseeded player to reach the final of the traditional Open Era in 60 years.
Jabeur, on the other hand, could hardly believe her luck. The 28-year-old defeated Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus in a high-class match 6:7 (5:7), 6:4, 6:3 and is in the final like last year. In 2022, the Tunisian lost to Jelena Rybakina from Kazakhstan. Against Sabalenka she converted her fifth match point after 2:19 hours.
Marketa Vondrousova clenches her victory fist after entering the final
Source: dpa/Steven Paston
“I’ve learned to turn negative emotions into positive ones,” said Jabeur, who was always highly emotional on the pitch. “I’m proud that I turned the game around and that I’m still in the tournament.” It didn’t look like that for a long time. Because after the lost first set, Jabeur was already a break behind in the second round. But then she braced herself against the defeat and, to the cheers of the spectators, managed to equalize the set.
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In the decisive section, Jabeur then seemed more stable from Sabalenka, who not only missed out on making the final, but also missed out on being number one in the world rankings. In case of victory against Jabeur, Belarusian Iga Swiatek from Poland would have replaced at the top of the ranking. But Jabeur objected and ended the thrilling encounter with an ace.
Switolina’s triumphant march ends
The world number six is the hope of an entire continent and an entire region. In Africa and in the Arab world, people root for her. On her way to the semifinals she had already defeated top players Bianca Andreescu, Petra Kvitova and defending champion Rybakina. Now she also got the upper hand against Australian Open champion Sabalenka.
Switolina’s triumph, on the other hand, ended a step before the final. Against Vondrousova, the Ukrainian was unable to build on her previous strong performances at Wimbledon. This time there was nothing to be seen of her power tennis, with which she had thrown the Polish world number one Swiatek out of the tournament in the previous round.
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Switolina gave up her serve three times in the first set, after just 29 minutes Vondrousova won the first round. In the second set, Switolina managed almost nothing for a long time. Vondrousova quickly pulled away to 4-0, but then at the score of 4-0, 40-0 it seemed to have something to do with her nerves. Switolina came back to 3:4 and seemed to be able to turn the game around. But then Vondrousova recovered and made the surprising finals perfect.
For the Czech it is the second final in one of the four most important tournaments of the tennis season. The 24-year-old was already in the final at the French Open in 2019, but had to admit defeat in Paris to Australian Ashleigh Barty, who has since retired. After a long injury break, she is back – and is about to achieve the greatest success of her career.
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