Markéta Vondroušová and Ons Jabeur will meet in the women’s Wimbledon final on Saturday with both aiming to win their maiden grand slam title.
Vondroušová beat Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in straight sets to reach her first Wimbledon final whilst Jabeur reached her second straight final at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club with a thrilling victory over No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka.
Vondroušová would become the first unseeded woman in the Open Era to win Wimbledon if she is victorious, while Jabeur would become the first Arab and North African woman to win a grand slam if she is triumphant.
Both will take to the Centre Court and the famous green grass in their gleaming white uniforms knowing they are close to making history.
Animal mascots
No one expected this of Vondroušová. The 24-year-old Czech player has stunned the Wimbledon field – beating four seeded players, including world No. 4 Jessica Pegula – on her way to the final.
And she saved arguably her best performance for last, the world No. 42 looking imperious in her first Wimbledon semifinal – she lost to Ash Barty in the French Open final in 2019 before injuries and loss of form saw her fall own the rankings.
Besides her emphatic and decisive tennis on the court, Vondroušová has shot to prominence with her unique set of tattoos and her animal mascots.
Both of Vondroušová’s arms are littered with a distinctive assortment of tattoos, and she told the BBC earlier in the tournament that she got her first one when she was 16 and ever since then, has been adding to the collection every so often, mostly with female tattoo artists.
After her semifinal victory on Thursday, Vondroušová admitted she has some added motivation to win in Saturday’s final.
“I have a bet with my coach,” she told reporters with a big smile. “If I win a grand slam, he’s going to get one, so I hope I will.
“I mean, we’ll see what happens and what I’ll do. For me, it’s also art. I don’t know, I just like it. I appreciate the people that do this.”
Vondroušová also has a set of mascots back in Prague cheering her on during her time in the UK; Brownie the pug and Frankie the sphynx cat.
With her spot in the final booked, she says that she’s had to make some calls to allow her husband – who was at home looking after Frankie – and her sister to come and watch her.
n “We texted the cat sitter to come to our home. He’s coming tomorrow,” said Vondroušová on Thursday.
Learning
Jabeur has been here before.
Just 12 months ago, the Tunisian lost in three sets to Elena Rybakina in the Wimbledon final.
Now Jabeur has more experience behind her – including a loss in the US Open final last year to Iga Świątek – and comes in as the heavy favorite.
She has been playing like a true Wimbledon contender over her two weeks at the grand slam, overcoming the seemingly unstoppable Sabalenka in the semifinal having enacted some form of revenge on No.
3 seed Rybakina in the quarterfinals. She even beat two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitová and 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the earlier rounds.
Jabeur explained that a lot has changed since she appeared in the 2022 women’s final at Wimbledon as she has worked on plenty of aspects of her game, specifically highlighting her patience.
“It teaches me how to be very patient and accept whatever happened to me with the injury because it was out of my control,” she told reporters. “I can’t do anything about it. I was trying my best to be ready for the competition.
On the court immediately after the victory over Sabalenka, Jabeur admitted that in the past, she might have lost that encounter.
And in her press conference, she said that the outcome might’ve been different even as recent as six months ago.
“It’s a different player,” she explained. “I’m working on myself like crazy. You have no idea what I’m doing. Every time there is something, I’m very tough with myself, try to improve everything.
“Very impatient sometimes, which is not good. Maybe the injuries did slow me down and teach me to be patient and accept what’s going on.
“For me, I always believed in mental, in working on it. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past years since I was maybe 10 years old because I know if you are not ready physically, mentally you can always win. That’s probably what happened in the last two matches.”