Marketa Vondrousova, the first unseeded finalist in the ladies’ singles in 60 years. Who’d of thunk it? Certainly not Vondrousova. To say she sounded flabbergasted was putting it mildly.

This time last year, she had her wrist in a cast and the nearest she got to the tennis was watching her best friend Miriam Kolodziejova in the Qualifying competition. Not that she was too disappointed – her best result in SW19 at that point was a second round loss to Emma Raducanu in 2021. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, she was through to the Wimbledon final. 

She had just beaten Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3 and she could not quite believe it.

“[To think I could do it] here on grass, it was almost impossible because I didn't play many matches on grass before,” she said. "My best one was second round. If it was on clay or hard, maybe I would say maybe it's possible. But grass was impossible for me. It's even crazier that this is happening.” 

First things first, though. For the past two weeks, her husband, Stepan Simek, has been back at home watching her progress on TV because he had to stay behind to look after their cat, Frankie.

But Frankie will now be left to his own devices as Stepan and Marketa’s sister are Wimbledon bound. They arrive on Friday. “We texted the cat sitter to come to our home. He's coming tomorrow,” Marketa explained lest anyone was concerned about Frankie’s wellbeing.

Two rounds of surgery on her left wrist cost the Czech six months of last year and it wasn’t until November that she was in any state to return to the Tour. Even then, there was always that nagging doubt that she might not be able to get back to her best (she reached the Roland-Garros final in 2019 and rose to No.14 in the rankings that summer).

“It's not always easy to come back,” she said. “You don't know if you can play at this level and if you can be back at the top and back at these tournaments. I'm just grateful to be on a court again, to play without pain. I'm just really grateful for it.”

Reaching the quarter-finals on grass in Berlin last month showed her that she might be able to do a bit better than in the past on the green stuff, but a place in the Wimbledon final seemed beyond her wildest dreams. Then again, she knew what it took to get to a Grand Slam final and now, four years older and wiser than in that Paris final, she feels ready for Saturday. 

“I think it can definitely help in tough moments,” she said. “I've been through it. Once I was very young, so it was just too much for me back then. I think this can help you also on the way. You know what to do. You know you have to have good people around you. Definitely it can help. I'm a bit older now also, a bit different person. I'm just very happy to be through this again.”

But for every winner, there is a loser and after her fairytale run to the last four, just nine months after having her first child, Svitolina was doing her level best to hold back the tears. She was playing not only for herself but for her compatriots watching back home in Ukraine.

Every round had been emotional and, in every round, she had fought tooth and nail to get another win for her country. Eventually it was all too much.

“For sure, it's a big motivation but it's a lot of responsibility, a lot of tension,” Svitolina said. “I try to balance it as much as I can. But sometimes it gets maybe too much.

“I don't want to take it as an excuse that I lost today. I try to take it as a motivation for me. I just hope that Ukrainian people continue supporting me. It was really amazing. And, yeah, just hope that I'm going to get another chance.”

There was one thought that cheered her up, though. After a couple of weeks away from home, the prospect of going home and seeing her husband, Gael Monfils, and daughter, Skai, finally brought a smile to her face. “I’m very happy about that,” she said. “It will be the best moment.” 

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