Ons Jabeur lost a second successive Wimbledon final and then broke into tears after being beaten in straight sets by the unseeded Marketa Vondrousova on Saturday afternoon. The Tunisian was beaten 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court having also lost to Elena Rybakina in the exact same settings 12 months ago.
But world No 42 Vondrousova becomes the first unseeded champion in the Open Era with what is her first Grand Slam triumph, having lost the French Open in 2019 as a teenager. She is the lowest-ranked woman ever to win Wimbledon and was the first unseeded woman to even play for the title at the All England Club in 60 years.
There were emotional scenes on court and in Vondrousova’s box as the Czech – who watched the tournament from the stands last year with her arm in a cast due to a wrist injury – was crowned champion.
Jabeur, too, was clearly emotional and could not hold back tears as she received her runners-up trophy from Princess Kate post-match for the second year in a row. The tearful Arab player told Annabel Croft in an emotional interview: “This is very, very tough. I’m gonna look ugly in the photos, it’s not going to help! I think this is the most painful loss of my career.
“First I wanna say congratulations to Marketa and her team for this amazing tournament. You are an amazing player and I know you had a lot of injuries so I’m very happy for you. It’s going to be a tough day today for me but I’m not going to come back and I’m going to come back stronger.”
Jabeur is now 0-3 in major finals having also lost to No 1 Iga Swiatek at the US Open last year. But Vondrousova’s triumph was incredible and one hard to envisage before the tournament, having been 1-4 at Wimbledon before this year, where she has gone 7-0 the last two weeks.
As well as the prestige of winning the grass-court Grand Slam, Vondrousova pockets a cool £2.135million in prize money as a reward for her iconic victory.
She said afterwards: “I don’t know what’s happening now, it’s an amazing feeling and I mean Ons congratulations and you are such an inspiration for all of us and I hope you’re going to win one day. You’re an amazing person and congratulations, you guys are doing an amazing job.
“After everything I’ve been through I had a cast last year this time so this is amazing that I can stand here and hold this. Tennis is crazy. I’m going to have some beers! It was a really exhausting two weeks. I’m really grateful, thank you guys for all of your support.”
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