Markéta Vondroušová

Markéta Vondroušová (Czech: [ˈmarkɛːta ˈvondrouʃovaː]; born 28 June 1999) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 6 in singles by the WTA. Vondroušová has won three WTA Tour-level singles titles, including the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. She is the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon women's singles title. She was also runner-up at the 2019 French Open, and claimed a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Vondroušová is a former junior world No. 1, having won two major doubles titles. She had a quick breakthrough on the WTA Tour, winning the 2017 Ladies Open Biel Bienne at age 17 in just her second career WTA Tour singles event. This helped her reach the top 100 of the WTA rankings before turning 18. Vondroušová struggled with injuries early in her career, most notably missing the second half of the 2019 season shortly after her French Open final. Her signature shot is the drop shot. She is one of the best returners on tour, having led the tour in percentage of return games won and percentage of return points won in 2019 among all players with at least ten matches.

Early life and background

Markéta Vondroušová was born on 28 June 1999 to David Vondrouš and Jindřiška Anderlová in Sokolov, a small town in the north-west of the Czech Republic. Her father introduced her to tennis at the age of four, having played the sport recreationally. Her mother played volleyball for SK Slavia Prague in the top-flight Extraliga. Her parents divorced when Vondroušová was three, but they both stayed in her life and supported her growth as a tennis player. When Vondroušová was young, she tried a variety of sports, including skiing, football, table tennis, and floorball, excelling in them all. She began to focus on tennis early, entering a national mini-tennis tournament on Štvanice island in Prague in 2006, in which she finished third and qualified for an international tournament in Umag in Croatia. At this tournament, she lost in the first round, but won the consolation bracket as an eight-year-old competing against mostly nine-year-old players.

After the tournament on Štvanice, it was arranged for Vondroušová to go back to train there, at the I. ČLTK Prague. During this time, she trained for five days a week, on two of which she travelled from her hometown to Prague to train on Štvanice and spend the night there. She had another international success at age 12, when she won the Nike Junior Tour International Masters in the United States, which was regarded as an unofficial 12-and-under world championship. At age 15, she moved to Prague to train more regularly there.

Vondroušová has a strong athletic background on her mother's side. Her great grandfather, František Frk, was the Czechoslovak national pentathlon champion in 1935.

Career

Juniors

Vondroušová is a former world No. 1 junior. She made her debut on the ITF Junior Circuit at the age of 13 and won both the singles and doubles events at her first tournament, the Grade 5 San Michel International Tournament in Malta in April 2013. Later in the year, she won a higher-level Grade 4 singles event in Poland as well as a separate Grade 2 doubles event in the Czech Republic. Vondroušová made her Grade 1 debut with a singles semifinal in January 2014, which she followed with a second round loss in her debut at the highest-level Grade A tournaments in May. She entered her first junior Grand Slam events in May and had immediate success, reaching the semifinals at both the French Open and Wimbledon. In both tournaments, she lost to the eventual champions Daria Kasatkina and Jeļena Ostapenko respectively. Vondroušová fared better in doubles at the French Open, finishing runner-up to the Romanian team of Ioana Ducu and Ioana Loredana Roșca alongside American CiCi Bellis in a match tiebreak. Despite losing her opening singles matches at her last two Grade A tournaments of the year, the US Open and the Orange Bowl, Vondroušová ended 2014 by winning the Orange Bowl doubles title with Bellis.

Vondroušová continued to have success in doubles in 2015, most notably winning her only two junior Grand Slam titles and three Grade-A doubles events in total. Although she lost her opening-round match at the Australian Open, she won the doubles title with compatriot Miriam Kolodziejová without dropping a set. Vondroušová did not play another junior event until late May, instead opting to play events on the professional circuit. In her return, she won both the singles and doubles events at the Grade-A Trofeo Bonfiglio, again partnering with Kolodziejová. She defeated Charlotte Robillard-Millette in the singles final for her only career Grade-A singles title. With these titles, Vondroušová became the No. 1 ranked junior in the world for the first time. While she lost in the semifinals at the French Open for the second consecutive year, she won a second Grand Slam doubles title with Kolodziejová, again without losing a set. The semifinal was her best Grand Slam singles result of the year. Vondroušová and Kolodziejová then won a fourth consecutive title at the Grade-1 Junior International Roehampton before their 28-match win streak came to an end in the Wimbledon semifinals, where they were defeated by the Hungarian team of Dalma Gálfi and Fanny Stollár.

Toward the end of the 2015 season, Vondroušová represented the Czech Republic at the Junior Fed Cup with Monika Kilnarová and Anna Slováková. She won all eight of her rubbers and led the Czech team to the title with a 2–1 victory over US team of Kayla Day and Claire Liu, in the final. Vondroušová only played one junior tournament in 2016, losing in the third round in singles at the French Open.

2014–2017: Pro debut, WTA 250 title, top 100

Vondroušová began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in May 2014 at the age of 14 and qualified for her first main draw later in the year. She reached her first singles final at the lowest $10k level in March 2015 at Sharm El Sheikh, where she won the doubles event for her first professional title. Her first and second singles title came in May and June respectively. Vondroušová made her WTA Tour main-draw doubles debut in April 2015 at the Prague Open, losing her opening match alongside Kateřina Vaňková. She made her WTA Tour singles debut at the same tournament a year later, winning her first career match against Océane Dodin before losing to eventual runner-up Samantha Stosur. Vondroušová did not enter any more events after May 2016 due to a left elbow injury.

Vondroušová returned to the tour in January 2017 and won her first two ITF singles events back followed by two more runner-up finishes in her third and fifth events. This success helped her break into the top 300 for the first time by the end of February.

At the Ladies Open Biel Bienne in April, Vondroušová had her first big breakthrough. She won her maiden WTA Tour title at age 17 in just her second career WTA singles event. After entering the main draw through qualifying, she upset top seed and world No. 18 Barbora Strýcová in the semifinals. She then defeated Anett Kontaveit in the final. With the title, she rose to No. 117 in the world. Having started the tournament at No. 233, she was also the lowest-ranked finalist on the WTA Tour since Justine Henin in 2010. Vondroušová then won a 100k title at the Slovak Open back on the ITF Circuit the next month to enter the top 100 for the first time. This also made her the youngest player in the top 100 at the time.

At her major debut at the French Open, she made it through qualifying and defeated Amandine Hesse in her first main-draw match, before losing to Daria Kasatkina. Vondroušová was directly accepted into the main draw at Wimbledon, losing her opening match. Later that month, she won another ITF title, at the 80k Prague Open, to rise to No. 68 in the world. Nonetheless, she again lost her opening match at the US Open, despite pushing No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova to a third-set tiebreak. She ended her season after September.

2018–2019: French Open final, top 15

Vondroušová had a slow start into the 2018 season, not winning multiple main-draw matches at any of her first five tournaments of the year, including the Australian Open. Nonetheless, she continued to rise in the rankings to as high as No. 50, after reaching the fourth round at the Indian Wells Open, where she defeated No. 11 Johanna Konta in the second round. Once Vondroušová did not defend the ranking points from her first title during the clay court season, her ranking began to drop. She won just two matches on clay and lost her opening round match at the French Open, causing her to fall outside the top 100. She also lost in the opening round at Wimbledon. Two weeks later, Vondroušová reached her first semifinal of the year at the Ladies Championship Gstaad. Nonetheless, she remained outside the top 100 by late August. As the last direct acceptance into the main draw of the US Open, Vondroušová produced her best result of the season. She upset No. 13 Kiki Bertens in the third round in a third-set tiebreak, before losing in her next match. This result brought her back to No. 71 in the world. For the second consecutive year, she finished at No. 67, after ending her season in September.