Wimbledon women's final preview: Jabeur takes on unseeded Vondrousova
She was down 2-4 in the second set and a point away from trailing 3-5, but came back from a set down to disappoint the Australian Open champion, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3. It is becoming a revenge tour for the Tunisian.
In addition to snapping her three-match losing streak against the Belarusian, she avenged her 2022 final loss to Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinal, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1, and beat two-time champion Petra Kvitova, in the fourth round, 6-0, 6-3, despite a 1-4 prior rivalry.
She has become the first woman to record three top 10 wins in the same edition of Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2012.
Furthermore, the world number six has now acquired 28 wins on grass since the start of 2021, the highest count on the surface in a three-year period since Maria Sharapova (2004-06).
The sixth seed arrived in Wimbledon having scored only 16 match wins in the first six months of the season, significantly fewer than some of her top 10 peers.
She had been struck by some physical concerns, skipping the month of February due to minor knee surgery and retiring in Stuttgart due to a left calf injury.
She has had a challenging road to the final, rallying from a set down in three of the last four rounds (also Bianca Andreescu in 3R).
The 28-year-old has the benefit of having won two grass titles, 2021 Birmingham and 2022 Berlin, after beating Daria Kasatkina and Belinda Bencic (ret.) in the respective finals.
The former world number two played two grand slam finals last year but finished second-best to Rybakina at Wimbledon, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, and Iga Swiatek at the US Open, 6-2, 7-6.
Overall, she has lost seven of 11 career finals but did win the lone 2023 one against Bencic in Charleston on familiar green clay.
Marketa Vondrousova has dashed the hopes of the now two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Elina Svitolina, who had defeated world number one Swiatek in the previous round.
Despite a comeback attempt from the Ukrainian, the world number 42 was able to prevail 6-3, 6-3 after winning six of nine return games.
She has become the first unseeded player to reach the final of Wimbledon in the open era.
The 24-year-old is also now the second-lowest ranked woman to reach the championship round at the All England Club since the WTA rankings were introduced, only ranking higher than 2018 runner-up Serena Williams (#181).
This is turning out to be an unbelievable few weeks for a player who held a 2-10 career record on grass before June.
Her best performances on the surface were second-round finishes in Eastbourne in 2019 and Wimbledon in 2021 until last month's quarterfinal run in Berlin with the help of a retirement.
She hasn't faced a Grand Slam champion en route to the final, like her opponent has done so four times in a row, but has defeated four seeded players in consecutive matches.
The former world no. 14 took out Veronika Kudermetova and Donna Vekic in straight sets, and Marie Bouzkova and Jessica Pegula in three.
The Czech is slated to return to the top 20, something she may not have expected to happen so quickly after missing six months of the previous season.
She is about to play her first final since missing out on the gold medal to Bencic at the Tokyo Olympics almost exactly two years ago.
In fact, she holds a 1-4 career record in title rounds, only winning her first one against Anett Kontaveit at Biel in a Swiss indoor hard-court WTA 250 event in April 2017.
One of her trophy misses came at the Grand Slam stage when she was humbled by Ashleigh Barty, 6-1, 6-3, in Paris in 2019 in 70 minutes.
Head-to-head: 3-3. In tour-level main draw affairs, the pair remain balanced at 2-2.
While Ons Jabeur won their only grass-court clash in Eastbourne in 2021, 6-3, 7-6, Marketa Vondrousova has won both of their 2023 meetings, at the Australian Open second round and Indian Wells third round.
