Markéta Vondroušová Reaches Another Final After Injury Challenges

Markéta Vondroušová has made it to her first final since capturing the Wimbledon title in 2023.

The Czech tennis star, who has been battling shoulder issues since her impressive triumph at SW19, secured a win over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka with scores of 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals of the German Open on Saturday.

Sabalenka, considered a leading contender to win Wimbledon this year, had previously fended off four match points in a tiebreak against 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, even benefiting from a lucky net cord. However, Vondroušová was far from wasteful. After saving break points early in the match, she seized her first opportunity to break Sabalenka’s serve. She did so again to decisively take the first set, and when the Belarusian launched a counterattack early in the second set, Vondroušová broke her serve at love, immediately halting the momentum of the world’s top player.

At 4-4 in the second set, Vondroušová struck at a pivotal moment. Landing a spectacular forehand while kneeling, she forced a Sabalenka double fault as the Belarusian attempted to regain control. Although Sabalenka reached 30-30, Vondroušová shifted from a slow return to a powerful serve targeting her opponent’s feet, creating a chance to break. While Sabalenka fought off that break point, she soon erred with a forehand into the net under pressure, reminiscent of Rybakina’s faltering the previous day.

Vondroušová then managed to keep a rally going from far behind the baseline, skillfully lobbing and chipping until Sabalenka netted a volley under pressure. While serving for the match, Vondroušová faced a 0-40 deficit. Nonetheless, facing an improved Sabalenka defense, she continued to play aggressively, drawing mistakes from her opponent to come back to deuce. Two points later, she was back where she had long aspired to be.

With four consecutive victories in Berlin, Vondroušová has equaled her longest winning streak since her Grand Slam victory. Last year’s grass season saw her Wimbledon defense end abruptly in a first-round loss to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, ranked 83rd at the time, while Vondroušová was number six. Remarkably, she was the first unseeded woman to win the Venus Rosewater Dish and the second defending champion to fall in the first round during the Open Era.

By the time the U.S. Open came around, she required surgery. At the age of 25, Vondroušová feared her career might be ending. Post-surgery, she struggled to wield a tennis racket without discomfort. With surgery being unfeasible, the time she invested in physical recovery did not translate into her game. She missed six months of the 2024 season before making a comeback in January 2025.

“It’s not fun,” Vondroušová admitted to The Athletic during a Roland Garros interview a few weeks ago. “I had to be very patient.” In Paris, she achieved two Grand Slam wins for the first time in over a year, and now, with the season moving from clay to grass, her expert control of the ball, deft groundstrokes, and self-assurance at the net are all noticeably pronounced. In a rematch against Ons Jabeur, like the 2023 Wimbledon final, she emerged victorious to earn the chance to face Sabalenka, having also defeated Madison Keys, another Wimbledon hopeful, in the first round.

Vondroušová will face either Liudmila Samsonova or Wang Xinyu in Sunday’s final.