A piece of sporting history is to be celebrated at Wimbledon today as a landmark 129th ladies’ singles final will conclude with the crowning of either the event’s first unseeded champion, Marketa Vondrousova, or its first Arab winner from north Africa, Ons Jabeur.
First things first; this is a scenario no one saw coming at the start of the Fortnight.
Certainly, it was easy to imagine another Championship match for Jabeur, the wizardly Tunisian who reached the final at the All England Club last year, even if it wasn’t quite so simple to envisage just how brilliant she would have to be in beating four Grand Slam champions en route.
But the progress of Vondrousova, the world No.42 who just a month ago believed she was little more than a no-hoper on grass courts, has been astonishing, and quite inspirational too.
For this time last year, the Czech had been at Wimbledon with her left racket-wielding wrist in plaster after a second bout of surgery and a serious question mark in her mind over whether she would ever again be that player who’d been good enough to reach the Roland-Garros final on clay as a teenager in 2019.
It took six months to get that cast removed and a few more to start to find confidence with her shot-making again.
And now, at 24, Vondrousova is on the cusp of joining that illustrious list of players from Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic who’ve gone on to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish – Martina Navratilova, Jana Novotna and Petra Kvitova.
Of the current crop, Vondrousova reckons the Czech mates all support each other. Just a month ago, she herself was left in tears of disappointment for her clubmate Karolina Muchova, who’d also got to a Grand Slam final out of the blue in Paris only to lose to Iga Swiatek.
“Just enjoy this moment,” she consoled Muchova in defeat.
And, win or lose, that’s what she’s determined to do herself today.
Her husband Stepan is flying in from Prague, doubtless relieved to be freed of his duties of looking after Frankie the cat, and how he’d love to see Marketa become the first unseeded woman to take the crown.
Four others – American Helen Jacobs (1938), Briton Angela Mortimer (1958), another Czech Vera Sukova (1962) and a certain Billie Jean Moffitt the following year – all reached the final unseeded, only to lose.
Imagine if Vondrousova could succeed where even the great Billie Jean King failed. Yet, actually, she’s happy that, whatever the result, she’s already triumphed.
“Because you don’t know if you can play at this level and be back at the top,” Vondrousova said. “I just feel like I’m just grateful to be on a court again, to play without pain.”
As her nation’s acclaimed ‘Minister of Happiness’, Jabeur would recognise Vondrousova’s uplifting story deserves a joyous conclusion but – sorry, Marketa – Ons has one rapt nation and 12 million Tunisians she needs to make delirious.
“For me, there is one goal: I’m going for it. I will prepare 100 per cent and, hopefully, I can make history not just for Tunisia but for Africa,” booms the magician who’s sounded more confident about her destiny after playing with more assurance every round.
Was it an omen that she’s already outplayed Kvitova, the last Czech left-hander to win the crown? Then fresh from defusing the power of Elena Rybakina, the champion who beat her in last year’s final, she nullified her 2021 Wimbledon conqueror Aryna Sabalenka too.
It’s all about revenge, this avenging angel declares with a broad grin. The power players Rybakina and Sabalenka have been dealt with; now Vondrousova, with a more idiosyncratic game decorated with slices and drop shots, a game rather more like her own, is in her sights after already having beaten Jabeur twice this season.
More patient, mentally stronger, tactically more astute, Jabeur’s two Grand Slam final defeats – she lost to Swiatek in last year’s US Open final too – have hardened her for this third-time-lucky moment. But still the doubts gnaw away; there’s a vulnerability in Jabeur, who’s always so open about her fears and hopes and dreams, which is actually part of her delightful universal appeal.
And she knows a nation will never stop willing her on. “I always try to remember that the good thing is they always tell me, win or lose, we love you!” she says. So, of course, will Wimbledon.
On Centre Court later, Neal Skupski, who’s partnering Dutchman Wesley Koolhof, will attempt to defeat Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos in the gentlemen’s doubles final to lift his third Wimbledon title.
One would hope Britain’s Minister of Happiness, if such a figure actually exists, will turn up to cheer on Liverpool’s finest.
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