No unseeded woman had won Wimbledon in the Open era until Marketa Vondrousova did it in 2023, ranked No. 42, a year after visiting the tournament with her wrist in a cast. She beat Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-4 with the game that defines her: left-handed, all disguise and slice, drop shots fed by soft hands. She had reached the 2019 Roland Garros final as a teenager and taken Olympic silver in Tokyo, and by September she rose to a career-high No. 6.
Her body kept interrupting: two wrist operations, then 2024 shoulder surgery that left her doubting she would ever play without pain. Berlin answered in June 2025, a title run past Aryna Sabalenka, then world No. 1, for the third of her 3 career titles. June 2026 brought a harder stop: a four-year ban for refusing an anti-doping test at her home the previous December. She says the late-night visit frightened her, insists she has never doped, and can appeal. The outsider champion's tale now waits on a verdict.
Twelve. That is the tiebreak score that sent Karolína Muchová into her first Wimbledon final, saving a match point along the way and beating Coco Gauff 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(10). She will play Linda Nosková, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Marta Kostyuk in the other semi-final, for the title on Saturday. Both finalists are Czech, so whoever wins, the Wimbledon women's trophy is going home with a Czech name on it.
Wimbledon notebook