Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova is sending a message this grass-court season. After missing nearly nine of the last 12 months on the Hologic WTA Tour, no one wants to see her coming.
The Czech’s 7-6(10), 4-6, 6-2 win over Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu on Sunday at the Berlin Tennis Open marked her first tournament win since she triumphed at Wimbledon two summers ago. After missing the last half of 2024 following shoulder surgery, Vondrousova had missed a further three months this year with a recurrence of the same problem.
Berlin: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Roland Garros was the first tournament she played since February.
On her way to the title, Vondrousova topped reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, Diana Shnaider, who won a different German grass-court title last year in Bad Homburg; Ons Jabeur, in a rematch of their final at SW19; and World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, snapping her winless record against top-ranked players.
The former World No. 6 came into the event ranked No. 164, making her the lowest-ranked champion in tournament history. She bettered Liudmila Samsonova’s 2021 mark of No. 106 — a player whom Wang defeated in the semifinals in the midst of a run to her first tour-level singles final.
“We came here to try and win the first match, and now this is happening, so I’m very grateful to be standing here,” the 25-year-old said in her victory speech.
On a sweltering day in Berlin, winning a titanic first set that lasted more than an hour proved crucial to Vondrousova. She trailed at 5-3, and broke Wang twice when the World No. 49 served for the set: first at 5-4, and again at 6-5. That led to another escape in the tiebreak: The left-hander trailed 6-3, and saved a staggering six set points, before eventually converting her third.
More to come…