She began with a self-deprecating joke in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood, but it didn’t take long for the heartbreaking reality to sink in. “This is the most painful loss of my career,” Ons Jabeur said in the post-match presentation at Wimbledon, and broke down in tears.
Her voice quivered, chin wobbled. It was the second year in a row Jabeur had come within one step of achieving her childhood dream and fallen agonizingly short. Even for the “minister of happiness”, as she is known back home in Tunisia for her wit and positivity, it was too much. At the end of the presentation ceremony, she raised the trophy with one hand and covered her eyes with the other in a poignant scene as the centre court crowd broke into a resounding applause.
There is something about dignity in defeat. Over the years of religiously following sport, I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing more moving than a sportsperson embracing vulnerability in front of the whole world. Those images stick with you.
Ben Stokes, hunched over, staring into nothingness after conceding four sixes in the last over to cost England the T20 World Cup in 2016. Or Bukayo Saka’s guilty look of having messed up after missing the penalty against Italy in the Euro 2021 final.
But a team sport still throws up some heartwarming moments in a depressing defeat that leave you with a wistful smile on your face. Captain Eoin Morgan immediately walked up to Stokes and put his arm around him in an attempt to share his grief. Coach Garath Southgate held Saka in his arms to console him. Full-grown adults, inconsolable after having left everything out there in the field, yet finding something within themselves to comfort their devastated teammates.
An individual sport is far more cruel and naked. Jabeur didn’t have a shoulder to lean on or a teammate to cry with. It was her loss. She stood there all alone and participated in the post-mortem of her tragedy. She laid bare her emotions, congratulated her conqueror and vowed to be back next year. It was 2022 all over again.
In the first season of Break Point, the popular docu-drama on Netflix, Jabeur revealed that she had taken a picture of Wimbledon’s trophy and kept it as her phone wallpaper. Every time she unlocked the phone, it reminded her of an unfulfilled dream. It reminded her why she started playing tennis in the first place.
Had she won last night, she would have been the first African and Arab woman to win a Grand Slam title. Unfortunately for Jabeur, the fairytale she hoped was unfolding at the other side of the net.
Marketa Vondrousova entered Wimbledon 2023 as an unseeded player. Last summer, she was in a cast after a surgery on her left wrist. “I was a tourist here,” she said, describing her visit to Wimbledon in July 2022.
About four months later in October, she started practicing again. Nine months later, she won the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world, scripting an inspiring turnaround. Until Wimbledon 2023, Vondrousova had a forgettable record of 2-10 on grass. At a time when much of the focus has been on Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka, nobody would have bet on Vondrousova to make the Wimbledon final.
When she served for the championship, her younger sister had already started bawling her eyes out. With one point away from glory, she couldn’t even look. Thankfully, Vondrousova stayed in the present with a calm and composed exterior. She did on match point what she had so successfully done throughout the tournament.
She approached the net and challenged Jabeur for a passing shot. Jabeur tried her best to find an angle that would keep her afloat in the match, but Vondrousova had it covered. She placed the volley in an open court, and collapsed on the ground in disbelief. The underdog had won.
When Vondrousova reached the final on Thursday, she became the first unseeded woman to do so after Billie Jean King in 1963. On Saturday, she did one better. She became the first unseeded women’s singles champion at a Grand Slam, where seeding began in the 1920s.
However, even though Vondrousova was the underdog challenging the sixth seeded Jabeur, it would be unfair to say she came out of nowhere. Especially, if you remember the drop shot she played on match point at the French Open semifinal in 2019. That is not something lesser mortals can do.
She has been a runner-up at the French Open, and has an Olympic silver medal. Of all the people, Jabeur would have been the last to take Vondrousova lightly, for she had beaten Jabeur twice this year before Saturday’s Wimbledon final.
It was always going to be an interesting match because Jabeur and Vondrousova are similar in style. Both love to craft their points with touch and tease. They slice and they play the drop shot. At the same time, both know what it is to lose important finals. The stakes were that much higher.
The nerves were quite evident in the first set where four of the first seven service games were broken. But as the match progressed, Vondrousova seemed to enjoy the occasion a bit more than Jabeur, who had beaten better players en-route to the final.
At one set down, 4-4 in the second set, serving on 30-30, Jabeur made two unforced errors. Moments before, it was still anybody’s game. Moments later, Vondrousova served for the championship. A couple of bad minutes, and one year of preparation was on the verge of being shattered.
Soon enough, Vondrousova closed out the match and the stadium erupted to salute a new champion. She soaked in every moment, humbly and graciously accepting the applause. Jabeur sat on her haunches, perhaps replaying those couple of minutes in her head, wondering what if. The rapture at the other end would have drawn out like a blade.
Vondrousova is 24, and I am glad she has a Grand Slam against her name before it enters the stage where people ask if she is ever going to win one. Hopefully, we will see her consistently in Grand Slam finals over the next 10 years. Jabeur, on the other hand, is 28. With each passing year, the absence of a Grand Slam would gnaw more at her. The task would get more uphill, and nerves more intense. Ask Tim Henman. There is nothing more agonizing in sport than being almost there.
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