(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Marketa Vondrousova’s the 2023 Wimbledon champion. The Czech defeated Ons Jabeur in a highly-electric and deceptive-looking final in straight sets on Saturday. After an hour and 20 minutes of play, the left-hander won 6-4, 6-4 to clinch her first Slam title.
At the start of play, Jabeur dominated the proceedings. She sliced and she made Vondrousova work for every point. Each time the rallies extended, they seemed to benefit the sixth seed. Jabeur’s determination that’d helped her in the quarter-final and semi-final against Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka respectively looked to be holding in good stead in the final as well.But Vondrousova, despite starting slow, didn’t refrain from maintaining pressure on her opponent.
Each time Jabeur gained a break, Vondrousova pounced on her returns to ensure that she got the break back almost right away. And, across both sets, as the proceedings entered the business end, Vondrousova secured a crucial break.
Both, in the first and second sets, Vondrousova broke Jabeur in the ninth game to serve out the first set and then the match, in the 10th game.
Wimbledon: Marketa Vondrousova’s big moment
The match boiled down to two key points.
Both players’ second-serve points hovered in the mid-40s for both Vondrousova and Jabeur. But Vondrousova won relatively more first-serve points to the latter’s — 61% to 48%. She also had better break-point conversion rate to the Tunisian’s.
Vondrousova converted six of seven break points on Jabeur’s serve while saving six of the 10 break points she faced. For the match, the left-hander finished with 68 points to Jabeur’s 57. She hit only 10 winners to her opponent’s 25 but also had only 13 unforced errors to the latter’s 31.Marketa Vondrousova’s the first Czech since Petra Kvitova in 2011 and 2014 to win the Wimbledon title.
The 24-year-old’s also the first left-handed women’s singles champion at The Championships since Angelique Kerber (2016) to hoist the Venus Rosewater Dish. Meanwhile, for Ons Jabeur, this is the second straight Wimbledon final’s she’s lost. Last year, she’d lost to Elena Rybakina.
