Stat of the Day: Marketa Vondrousova becomes first unseeded women’s finalist at Wimbledon in Open Era

Marketa Vondrousova has reached her first Wimbledon final—and second Grand Slam final—with a 6-3, 6-3 semifinal victory over Elina Svitolina on Centre Court on Thursday afternoon.

And with the victory, she made history: Vondrousova is the first unseeded women’s finalist at Wimbledon in the Open Era.

The last unseeded woman to reach the Wimbledon final was Billie Jean King in 1963, five years before the Open Era began. King would finish runner-up to top-seeded Margaret Court that year.

Vondrousova wasn’t too far from being seeded this year, just eight spots out—she was ranked No. 40 when the seeds were made the week before Wimbledon, and the Top 32 players get seeded.

She’s currently ranked No. 42.

After four straight holds to start, the two players traded breaks in the fifth and sixth games en route to 3-all—which is when Vondrousova caught fire, reeling off the next seven games to build a 6-3, 4-0 lead.

Svitolina wouldn’t go down without a fight, winning the next three games—including getting both breaks back—to close to 4-3 in the second set, but Vondrousova broke one last time and then held to finally close it out and move into her first Wimbledon final.

“Crazy,” Vondrousova said afterwards. “It was a very tough match. She was coming back. She was playing some good tennis. Yeah, I’m just very happy that I stayed focused and I stayed in my head.

“I’m happy with the way I finished it.”

The Czech lefty will be playing the second Grand Slam final of her career, having also reached the final of Roland Garros in 2019, just a few weeks before her 20th birthday. She would fall to Ashleigh Barty, who picked up the first of her three career Grand Slam titles that day.