The third Grand Slam of the 2023 season, the women’s singles at Wimbledon, is down to just one final. On 15 May at 10pm (GMT), Marquetta Bondrowsova (Czech Republic) and Ons Jaber (Tunisia) will play for the title of Wimbledon champion. Whoever wins will claim their first Grand Slam title.
Bondrowsova and Jaber’s journey to the final has been a mixed bag. It started at Wimbledon last year. Bondrowsova missed last year’s Wimbledon. This was due to surgery for a left wrist injury. She came into the tournament having improved her world ranking from 124th to 42nd.
In the main draw this year, Bondrowsova did not attract much attention. Even the players in the same block of the bracket as her didn’t cause much of a stir. Only Annette Kontaveit (EST), who retired from Wimbledon due to a herniated disc, has been an issue. Seeded players were knocked out one by one. Of course, one of those seeded players was Vondrowsova.
In the quarter-finals, Bondrowshova met Jessica Pegula (USA), one of the top four players in the world, and the least interesting of the four quarter-final matches. The quarter-final was against Elina Svitolina (UKRA), who had been the centre of attention throughout the tournament. Between mum syndrome, the war in Ukraine and defeating a grand slammer, Svitolina has been the story of Wimbledon women’s singles until the last four. Bondrosova was a relative villain. In the quarter-finals, the fans were much louder for Svitolina than for Wozniacki, and the Russian quietly made her way to the final.
Javier was the runner-up at the last tournament. She was ranked second at the time. Last year, she was on a 33-match winning streak and seemed to be on the verge of winning her first Grand Slam title when Sibyon Tech (Poland) fell. Her opponent in the final was a taller player, ranked 23rd. But the big girl turned out to be the Cinderella of last year’s Wimbledon. It was Rybakina (Kazakhstan). She started last year’s Wimbledon with a bang and jumped to world number three. 안전놀이터순위
Unlike Bondrowsova’s performance, Jaber’s has been closely watched. The active grass-court winning percentage leader (77 per cent) met Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic), the second highest winning percentage player (76 per cent), in the round of 16, played a rematch of last year’s final with Rybakina in the quarter-finals, and took out world number two Arina Sabalenka (Belarus) in the last four. To the delight of many, Jaber was back in the final after a year away.