How much can an important success like Wimbledon change a person? A question answered by Marketa Vondrousova during the media day of the London Major. The Czech, who returns to the All England Club where last year she won the most important and unexpected victory of her career by defeating Ons Jabeur in the final, explained how her success has not changed her.
"Honestly, my life hasn't changed much. It happened. I thought: Okay, now you're a Wimbledon champion. Maybe it changed more for the people around me. They look at you differently, it happens in tournaments too. Now I have the trophy in home, I look at it and think: Yes, this happened but I don't think winning a Slam should change you as a person. I don't consider myself a Wimbledon champion, I consider myself Marketa, not the winner of this tournament," said Vondrousova.
"I came here playing without any kind of stress. I thought I'd try to maybe win a couple of matches. In the third round, after winning, I felt I could still do something, I started to appreciate tennis a little on the grass and I also learned to move a little better. I never thought about winning the tournament, even before the semi-finals it was something that never crossed my mind. I went game by game, I didn't think about winning at all I think the first thought that I could win the tournament came when I broke Ons Jabeur in the second set of the final when he was serving to win the match. It was crazy to win because we didn't expect it at all, my whole team didn't expect it. When I played the Roland Garros final in 2019, I lost. I was very sad and we didn't celebrate at all. I thought that if it happened again, even if I lost the final, I would want to enjoy it and celebrate. The truth is that I liked the whole match, the whole final," she explained.
The Czech player is now number 6 WTA and as tradition, on Tuesday she will open the program on CentreCourt as the defending champion.
"It's something I'm thinking about, obviously. I'm not stressed yet, but maybe the tension will come. On Friday I trained on the Centre Court, I can't wait to get back there. I have good memories, we'll see what happens, I feel good,"she said.
