Marketa Vondrousova is through to her second Grand Slam final after beating Elina Svitolina at the 2023 Wimbledon.
And this time, it is a milestone-matching one as she did something that was yet to be done since 1963. Marketa Vondrousova narrowly avoided losing in the previous round against Jessica Pegula, requiring a remarkable comeback to win the match. Her withdrawal from the doubles with an ankle injury left fans worried about her status for this match, but the worry was vastly overblown.
Facing a very motivated Elina Svitolina, the Czech player played a solid match from the baseline, completely taking control of the rallies. She was aggressive, as was Svitolina, but for the most part, Vondrousova had better control of the ball.
She finished the opening set with 11 winners, six more than Svitolina. That was largely the key as Svitolina was able to break Vondrousova once but she also got broken three times in the opening set and that's not going to cut it for a Wimbledon semi-final.
The second set didn't open any differently as Vondrousova once again took an early lead, just hitting the ball at an incredible level. Svitolina was quite literally powerless, and that says a lot for a player who has been battling on a very high level for a couple of rounds.
She might have been a bit fatigued though as she was a bit slow at times but the pace of play was very quick. The match was on pace to finish in under an hour for much of it but ultimately extended slightly more. There simply wasn't any intent from Vondrousova to play long rallies.
The biggest issue for the Ukranian was her inability to hold up in those snappy rallies. She wasn't hitting the ball on the level of Vondrousova and missed far too many times. She was particularly vulnerable on her serve, broken four times in 8 service games.
The final score was 6-3, 6-3 for Vondrousova, who had 22 winners and 25 unforced errors. Svitolina was much less successful, with nine winners and 24 unforced errors. Vondrousova awaits the winner of the match between Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur in the final.
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