Wondrous Vondrousova makes her 1st Big W final

Czech player beats Svitolina to become the first unseeded women's singles finalist at Wimbledon in the Open Era

- Aditya Chaturvedi

Much of the talk ahead of the Wimbledon semifinal between Marketa Vondrousova and Elina Svitolina centered around the latter. After all, just three months after having a baby and returning to the tour, Svitolina had reached the last four with a victory against world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. It was, perhaps, the most compelling story at SW19 this year.

Of the two, though, it was only Vondrousova who had the distinction of winning a Grand Slam semi-final.

The 24-year-old, who finished as runner-up to Ash Barty at the 2019 French Open, was on a fairytale run of her own and on Thursday, she won 6-3, 6-3 to become the first unseeded women's singles finalist at Wimbledon in the Open Era.

In the final she will face Ons Jabeur, who staged a remarkable comeback victory against World No.2 Sabalenka, winning 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3, to reach her second successive Wimbledon final.

Vondrousova, ranked 42, and Svitolina, ranked 76, had faced each other five times earlier, with the Ukrainian leading their head-to-head 3-2. But a crucial factor was that Vondrousova had won their last two meetings in straight sets, dropping just seven games in the process.