13 July 2023 , 14:55
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Elina Svitolina was hailed as a “great fighter” after her brave run to the Wimbledon semi-finals was ended by Marketa Vondrousova.
The Ukrainian wildcard had beaten Belarusian Victoria Azarenka and world No.1 Iga Swiatek to reach the last four.
But despite the urging of the Centre Crowd, the Czech world No.42 became the first unseeded women finalist at Wimbledon since 1963 with a convincing 6-3 6-3 win in only 75 minutes.
As Vondrousova won seven consecutive games from 3-3 in the first set, the Centre Court crowd was stunned to silence under the roof. But from 0-4 down, Svitolina broke back twice before the nervous Czech closed out the match.
Vondrousova, who was making her first appearance on Centre Court, said: “I can’t believe it. I am just so happy to get through. The final game was tough. She is such a fighter and a great person. I was crazy nervous. I was nervous in the last game. I was leading 4-0 and she broke back twice and I just had to focus on my game.”
As World No.42, the left-hander is the second lowest woman to reach the Wimbledon final since the WTA Rankings were introduced Vondrousova also reached the 2019 French Open final by beating British No.1 Jo Konta before losing to Ash Barty.
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World No.76 Svitolina, who only returned to the WTA Tour in April after maternity leave, looked mentally and physically exhausted after her first five matches here while representing her nation. Ukraine's UK ambassador Vadym Preystaiko was among her supporters.
Left-hander Vondrousova varied her game with clever slices, drop shots and lobs to give the former world No.3 no rhythm. This was only the fourth time in the Open era the Wimbledon semifinals features two unseeded semifinalists - and the first time the two outsiders had ever met in the last four.
Vondrousova made the first break in the fifth game with a running forehand pass before Svitolina immediately broke back to level at 3-3 when the Czech missed a forehand for the biggest cheer of the day.
Elina Svitolina reacts after being beaten in the Wimbledon semi-finals (Getty Images)But from then on, Vondrousova took control. She broke again to lead 4-3 when Svitolina’s forehand failed her again. And at 3-5, the Czech produced a running forehand slice pass winner before taking her first set point after 29 minutes when the Ukrainian sent another forehand wide.
The second set was a one-sided affair as Vondrousova raced to a 4-0 lead before she double-faulted twice to allow Svitolina to break back to 1-4. She had break points to lead 5-1 before Svitolina held her serve and then broke again in an epic game to pull back to 4-3.
But with the crowd finally getting in the contest, Svitolina could not take her chance to draw the second set level and she was tamely broken when she sent an inside-out forehand long. She took her first match point when Svitolina sent a backhand return long before the Ukrainian left Centre Court to huge applause.