Saturday, July 15, 2023

No seed? No problem

Today, Marketa Vondrousova became the first unseeded woman in history to win Wimbledon. (Before Vondrousova's run, the last unseeded woman to reach the final was Billie Jean King, in 1963.) The Czech player--who has had to deal with two wrist injuries since her 2019 run to the French Open final---has reached six finals in her career, and she was unseeded in five of them. This is how Vondrousova rolls.

Her opponent was 2022 runner-up Ons Jabeur, who played her way through a particularly nasty draw to reach the final again. She had to beat 2020 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu, two-time Wimbledon champion and 9th seed Petra Kvitova, defending champion and 3rd seed Elena Rybakina, and 2023 Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka. That was a lot of heavy lifting.

And, as I wrote yesterday, Vondrousova's draw was tougher than it looked like on paper. She had to take out some very tough opponents, including 20th seed Donna Vekic, Marie Bouzkova and wild card (and Wimbledon symbol of inspiration) Elina Svitolina. She also defeated 12th seed Veronika Kudermetova and 4th seed Jessica Pegula.

Needless to say, 6th seed Jabeur was the strong favorite to win the title. She was serving well, returning well, using her considerable bag of tricks against a variety of opponents, and she appeared to be filled with confidence. Perhaps most important, she had vanquished Rybakina, the woman who had prevented her from winning the title last year.

But something went wrong. Something going wrong tends to occur when there's a Czech player present (especially a lefty), and today was no exception. Actually, two things went wrong for Jabeur. One--the only one that people seem to be noticing--was that she had an obvious mental lapse, bringing to mind memories of a "former Ons." But the other thing that went wrong (and no doubt contributed to the first thing) was that her opponent had opened the aforementioned bag of tricks, examined the contents, and made appropriate preparation.

Jabeur likes to zing groundstrokes into the corners. Vondrousova picked them up and returned them, over and over. Jabeur is known for executing some of the tour's best drop shots. Vondrousova not only anticipated them, but returned them like a boss. The seemingly popular belief that Vondrousova "didn't have to do anything" is--to use a highly technical sports term--pure nonsense.

Then there was the matter of the serve. Jabeur ended the match with a 48/45 first and second win serve percentage stat--a huge comedown from her service game against Sabalenka. When Jabeur broke Vondrousova's serve early in the second set, there was reason to believe that the 6th seed could use her defensive skills to help her get her game back on track. But it wasn't to be, partly because Vondrousova stayed cool and collected throughout the match. Jabeur converted only 40% of her break chances. Her opponent converted 86%, and put together a 6-4, 6-4 victory in an hour and 20 minutes.

Vondrousova, ranked number 42 in the world, is the lowest-ranked woman to win Wimbledon. Prior to entering this tournament, she had won only three matches on grass in her career, which is even more remarkable than her unseeded status. When the Olympic silver medalist held up the Venus Rosewater Dish for the crowd, she also gave waiting fans a thumbs-up. (My hope is that she had easy access to the balcony. The last "unknown" Czech to win Wimbledon, Petra Kvitova, in 2011, was told by Wimbledon staff that she wasn't allowed to approach the balcony. The fact that she was holding the Venus Rosewater Dish apparently didn't impress the guards--someone had to come and tell them that Kvitova had just won Wimbledon.)

Ons Jabeur is a great athlete, an outstanding tennis player, and is beloved by peers and fans. She plays for her country as well as for herself. She was "supposed" to win. Sport is brutal. At the end of her trophy ceremony speech, she promised that she would come back and win the tournament. I think that she will. And right now, the person who comes to my mind is yet another Czech player--a beloved one who is no longer with us--who lost two Wimbledon titles, but came back strong on her third try. I also thought of Novotna today when the Princess of Wales comforted Jabeur, much as the Duchess of Kent had offered comfort to Novotna thirty years ago.

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