The women’s final is set for Wimbledon 2023. For the second straight year, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia is in the championship game. On Thursday, Jabeur, the sixth seed, defeated the second seed, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the semifinals, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3. Jabeur will play the unseeded Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the final. Vondrousova beat Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-3, 6-3 in the other semifinal.
The fact that Vondrousova is in the final is noteworthy. She in fact became the first unseeded women’s Wimbledon finalist since American Billie Jean King in 1963 according to the Associated Press. King, a native of Long Beach, California, lost 6-3, 6-4 to Australia’s Margaret Court. The fact that an unseeded player reached the final at Wimbledon this year was guaranteed heading into the semifinals. That is because Svitolina was also unseeded. According to Hannah Jane Parkinson of The Guardian, it was the first time that two unseeded players in the women’s single draw reached the semifinals in the Open Era at Wimbledon, and they ironically played against each other.
The key statistic in Vondrousova’s win over Sabalenka was winners. Vondrousova had 22, while Svitolina had nine. Vondrousova has previously reached the final of the 2019 French Open (lost to Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-1, 6-3), and the final of the 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 (lost to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 7-5, 2-6, 6-3).
In Jabber’s win over Sabalenka, the key statistic was unforced errors. Sabalenka played a very sloppy match as she had 45, while Jabeur only had 14.
Head-to-head, Jabeur and Vondrousova have beaten each other twice in WTA events. Jabeur won 6-3, 7-6 in the first round of Eastbourne in 2021, and 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of Stuttgart in 2022. Vondrousova won 6-1, 5-7, 6-1 in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open, and 7-6, 6-4 in the round of Indian Wells this year.
