In the very early times of the turf period this June, Marketa Vondrousova and also her multiplies companion for the full week, her Czech national Katerina Siniakova, browsed their method to the last in Berlin. Then, Vondrousova’s file in finals, around single people and also multiplies equally, was actually certainly not specifically perfect. Their ultimate three-set disappointment indicated her 7th upright reduction when it matters very most. In the after-effects, certainly not also her mommy, Jindriska, can conceal her stress.
“They arrived for the finals and also she mentioned, like: ‘I don’t wish to be actually 2nd regularly,’” states Vondrousova, having a good laugh, as she recollects the chat along with her mommy. “I felt like: ‘OK, it’s excellent also to become in an ultimate. Start, Mum!’ As well as she’s like: ‘Yeah, however I don’t wish to be actually 2nd regularly.’”
A handful of full weeks later on, the 24-year-old opposed an entirely various form of finishing touch: the Wimbledon single people last. In the absolute most extreme instant of her job, Vondrousova’s chat along with her mommy intercrossed her thoughts and also offered some laughs to aid offer for the label versus Ons Jabeur.
Her course coming from the little Czech community of Sokolov to the Wimbledon champ’s supper has actually possessed its own challenges. Unlike much of her peers, ping pong was actually originally merely a leisure activity and also she participated in 2 or even 3 opportunities a full week in her residence community, while additionally taking a two-hour travel to Prague along with her gramps every week to practice. Due to the grow older of 15, however, she was actually presently some of the absolute most encouraging children in the Czech Commonwealth and also relocated to Prague alone to seek her aspirations. Just before her 16th special day, she had actually ended up being the No 1 junior worldwide.
Her moms and dads were actually incapable to pay for the expensive costs of her job however Vondrousova’s junior excellence stood out. When she had to do with 14, her moms and dads authorized a contract along with a supervisor, Vladimir Houdek, which, she states, offered her along with financial backing in profit for an amount of her potential incomes: “My moms and dads performed authorize it due to the fact that it was actually a bunch of loan to embed ping pong and also they were actually functioning thus our company didn’t possess a lot loan for ping pong, trainers and also things. So our company needed to authorize it.”
The deal, Vondrousova details, offered her the financing she required to create it on the major trip. After her prosperous junior job, she transitioned on the trip in outstanding manner through succeeding her 1st WTA label in Biel, merely her 2nd WTA major draw activity, coming from certifying. Yet those very early choices came with a price. At 18, she had actually wearied of her condition. Vondrousova and also her loved ones made a decision to acquire Houdek away from his deal.
“I chose I intended to finish it so I needed to acquire him [out] for the deal to end up. So it was actually insane opportunities. Yet I believe I performed a benefit due to the fact that he pressed me a lot regarding events and also every thing. Therefore at that point it was actually a little bit taxing and also I couldn’t perform what, you recognize, what I wished. So I believe that it was actually an excellent option.”
Vondrousova states the factor of opinion along with Houdek was actually the tension she experienced he placed her under to complete in events, which she asserts indicated taking the chance of trauma. Houdek has previously denied her claims and also illustrated her 1st social discuss the crack as “rubbish and also clear deceptions”.
In 2018, Vondrousova paid off the contract with almost all the money she had accumulated in her career. She says she arrived at the US Open that year with enough money to last only until the end of the season, uncertain about what would happen next. Somehow, she made it all the way to the fourth round, earning $266,000 in by far her best grand slam showing at that point.
“I had money till the [end of the] season,” says Vondrousova. “I played fourth round at the US Open that year. So that helped me a lot. I think if I were to lose [in] the first round, it was going to be very tough. So I didn’t think about it.”
A year later, a brilliant, breakout spring ended with her reaching her first grand slam final at the 2019 French Open. The most joyous period of her career at that point, though, also turned out to be grim. There was first the difficulty of dealing with her one-sided loss to Ash Barty as her world changed overnight and expectations rose.
“It was such a great tournament and I didn’t even enjoy it,” she says. “So I said to myself if this happened again, I would just want to enjoy it so much because I was 19 and I played a final so it was crazy, but I feel I just put so much pressure on me after and also the people just expect me to win everything and it was kind of crazy time.”
It was also marred by tragedy. During her run, Vondrousova’s longtime boyfriend, Stepan Simek, now her husband, learned that his father had died. Simek, who had been in the Czech Republic at the start of the event, had attempted to keep the news from her as she advanced through the rounds. Each time she asked him to join her in Paris, he came up with excuses for why he couldn’t. Eventually, though, he had to tell her the truth.
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“I told him: ‘You have to come, you have to be here.’ And he was like: ‘I can easily’t go.’ No, I was like: ‘What’s happened and what’s happening?’ He told me this so it was kind of like the happiest times and then the saddest times also. Everything happened.”
Her subsequent seasons were turbulent. As she tried to follow up her first grand slam final, Vondrousova had surgery that forced her out for the rest of 2019; she enjoyed a brilliant run to the 2020 Olympic final in Tokyo, which after her experience in Paris she was determined to relish even while playing in front of an empty stadium; she then had another wrist operation in 2022, her confidence capitulating between layoffs.
If she could remain healthy, it seemed only a matter of time before Vondrousova put her game together and rebounded. But certainly not on grass. Grass was, in her words, impossible. She had started the grass-court season in 2023 with a 2-10 main draw record on the surface. “I didn’t play good on grass before so I felt like: ‘Let’s try and I’ll play some matches without stress because I don’t care about grass,’” she laughs. “But then I was winning …”
The key to her victory, though, is something that she cannot possibly replicate. She went into Wimbledon with no expectations and surprised herself each step of the way. It was not until match point, she says, that she actually thought she could win the title.
But now she is a grand slam champion and a top-10 player, there will be no more hiding coming from the limelight. In order to win again, she has to learn how to do so with all eyes on her and expectations high. “I’m not the underdog any more,” she says. “I have to get used to that.”
So far, Vondrousova has handled herself well. After winning a couple of matches in Canada, she reached the quarter-finals in Cincinnati, where she lost to the world No 1, Iga Swiatek, after serving for the first set. She is keeping her expectations low again.
“I feel like it’s a good thing to have the pressure that you are currently top 10,” she says. “But now I’m taking it match by match because I feel like everyone is actually going to want to beat you and they’re going to play some great shots because they have nothing to drop now. You have to take that and also merely focus on every suit.”
