Marketa Vondrousova reveals her usually calm husband ‘cried a lot’ after her ‘crazy’ Wimbledon journey

The pressure is finally off and Marketa Vondrousova and her family can finally enjoy the moment and celebrate following a “crazy” fortnight at Wimbledon.

Just over four months ago Vondrousova found herself outside the top 100 in the WTA Rankings as she was still nursing her way back following wrist surgery last year.

At the start of Wimbledon, she was 4-11 on grass and not too many tennis experts would have expected her to reach the latter stages of the tournament, let alone the final. Heck, Vondrousova herself didn’t expect she will get to the second week.

Yet she defeated favourite Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-4 in the final on Saturday to win her maiden Grand Slam and in the process she became the lowest-ranked player to win Venus Rosewater Dish as she was ranked No 42 before the tournament.

After the match she was asked to describe her run and replied: “I would say ‘crazy’, for sure. As I said, I didn’t play well before on grass. When we were coming here, I was like, Okay, just play without stress, just try to win couple of matches. Then this happened.

“It’s unbelievable. I think nobody would have told you this before when we were coming here that I even have a chance to win. I was unseeded. I mean, it’s such a crazy journey.

“I can’t believe it still.”

The sisterly bond is strong #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/wLYvJ3flwe

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 15, 2023

Back in 2019 Vondrousova reached the French Open final, finishing runner-up to Ashleigh Barty, and it was a lonely time as she didn’t have her family around after the defeat.

Things were different on Saturday as her husband Stepan Simek as well as her younger sister Julia were in her players’ box for the big match.

“I mean, winning, it’s amazing feeling. I have my husband here. My little sister came also on Friday. Yeah, I’m just very happy to share with the people I have here ’cause in Paris it was a bit sad. I couldn’t go there to hug them. Now this happened. I think just to share it with them, it’s amazing,” she said.

The 24-year-old was asked also about her husband Stepan not showing emotion during the match and she joked: “He’s like this all the time (smiling). I think when I came to the box, he cried. I saw him after, and he cried a lot.

“I think that’s the first emotion I saw him over the eight years (laughter). I think he cried on the wedding day also, but that was it for the eight years, so… That’s it.”

READ MORE: Who is Marketa Vondrousova’s husband Stepan Simek?

Vondrousova and Simek’s sphynx cat Frankie became a bit of an internet sensation during her Wimbledon run as one of the reasons why Simek didn’t attend the earlier rounds was because he had to cat sit.

They had to hire a cat sitter to look after Frankie during the final, but the feline will be spoilt once they return home.

“I think I’m going to buy her some good fish (smiling). She’s with the cat sitter now. My mom is coming tomorrow to watch her,” Vondrousova revealed.

“Yeah, she has to wait for us. I think she doesn’t really care what’s happening. But, yeah, I’m going to buy her something good.”