Ons Jabeur left Wimbledon a year ago without the trophy but more confident than ever that she would win a Grand Slam title one day.
Marketa Vondrousova was at the All England Club in 2022, too. Not to play, mind you, but only to be a tourist in London and to cheer for her best friend – and doubles partner – while wearing a cast on her surgically repaired left wrist, unsure of what her tennis future might look like.
They play similarly varied games, with drop shots and changes of pace. They also are a combined 0-3 in major finals. That will change Saturday, when No. 6 seed Jabeur and the unseeded Vondrousova play each other at Centre Court for the women’s singles championship.
She is the only Arab woman and only North African woman to participate in the final at a Grand Slam tournament.
Last season, Jabeur, 28, from Tunisia, lost the title matches at Wimbledon to Elena Rybakina and at the U.S. Open to Iga Swiatek.
The big-hitting Aryna Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in January, was the fourth past Grand Slam champion eliminated by Jabeur, a list that also includes Elena Rybakina, two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova and 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu.
Only two women in the 55-year history of the sport’s professional era have won a major tournament after needing to get past that many previous Slam champs along the way: Serena Williams at the 1999 U.S. Open and Justine Henin at the 2005 French Open.
Vondrousova, 24, from the Czech Republic, beat Jabeur twice earlier this year. She is the first unseeded finalist at the All England Club since Billie Jean King made it that far 60 years ago. The Associated Press