Marketa Vondrousova of Sokolov, Czech Republic made tennis history on Saturday by becoming the first unseeded women’s singles champion at Wimbledon ever. She defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, the sixth seed, 6-4, 6-4.
Two unseeded men have won Wimbledon singles championships in the past. Boris Becker of Leimen, West Germany beat the eighth seed American Kevin Curren 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in the 1985 Wimbledon final, and Goran Ivanisevic of Split, Croatia beat the third seed Australian Patrick Rafter 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7 in the 2001 Wimbledon final.
Thirteen more unseeded players in the Open Era have won a grand slam title. Mark Edmondson of Australia won the 1976 Australian Open on the men’s side, Chris O’Neil of Australia won the 1978 Australian Open on the women’s side, Mats Wilander of Sweden won the 1982 French Open on the men’s side, Andre Agassi of the United States won the 1994 United States Open on the men’s side, Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil won the 1997 French Open on the men’s side, Gaston Gaudio of Argentina won the 2004 French Open on the men’s side, Serena Williams won the 2007 Australian Open on the women’s side, Kim Clijsters of Belgium won the 2009 United States Open on the women’s side, Jelena Oatapenko of Latvia won the 2017 French Open on the women’s side, Sloane Stephens of the United States won the 2017 United States Open on the women’s side, Iga Swiatek of Poland won the 2020 French Open on the women’s side. Barbora Kjrecikova of the Czech Republic won the 2021 French Open on the women’s side and Emma Raducanu of Great Britain won the 2021 United States Open on the women’s side.
Vondrousova is also the third Czech woman to win Wimbledon. She follows Jana Novotna in 1998, and Petra Kvitova, who won twice in 2011 and 2014.
In Sunday’s final, Vondrousova, who was ranked 42nd in the world, broke Jabeur six times. Vondrousova only had 13 unforced errors compared to 31 for Jabeur.
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