By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport
Self-doubt stuck to Marketa Vondrousova as tight as the tattoos adorning her arms.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Vondrousova couldn't shake the nerves or the bold strikes coming from Jessica Bouzas Maneiro's racquet.
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In her Wimbledon main-draw debut, Bouzas Maneiro dethroned defending-champion Vondrousova 6-4, 6-2 in a shocking and historic Wimbledon opening-round upset.
The sixth-seeded Vondrousova made ignominious history.
Thirty-years after American serve-and-volleyer Lori McNeil stunned Steffi Graf 7-5, 7-6 in a rain-interrupted Wimbledon opener, Vondrousova became the first defending ladies' champion to crash out of The Championships first round.
Today, an unsettled Vondrousova was stalled by a hip and injury she sustained falling to the grass in Berlin last month, spooked by spiking nerve and unable to solve the 21-year-old Spaniard. To her credit, Vondrousova did not blame her defeat on the leg and hip issues.
"I think practice was fine and everything. Yeah, today I was a bit scared because of my leg, too," Vondrousova told the media at Wimbledon. "But I don't think that was the reason. I felt the nervous from the start.
"Yeah, I mean, she was also playing a good match. That was kind of tough, too.
"Overall it was very tough. Yeah, it's tough feelings also to go back. I feel like everybody just expects you to win maybe. That's tough, too."
Signs of jitters were evident in the opening game as the left-handed Czech clanked three double faults gift-wrapping the break—and a boost of confidence to the Wimbledon main-draw debutant.
"Today I was really nervous since the start. I, like, couldn't maybe shake it off," Vondrousova said. "Yeah, also she was playing good. I didn't, I don't know, like had many chances to come back to the match or she didn't give me much free points also.
"Yeah, credits to her. I'm going to be back stronger, I hope."
The former French Open finalist's exit means we will see an eighth different woman raise the Rosewater Dish for the eighth straight year on Saturday, July 13th.
Serena Williams, who won back-to-back Wimbledon championships in 2015 and 2016 is the last woman to successfully defend The Championships.
Though Vondrousova was clearly physically compromised, credit the 83rd-ranked Spaniard for scoring a series of firsts. Bouzas Maneiro scored her first major main-draw win, her first grass-court win and her first Top 10-win in a career moment that left her nearly pinching back tears of joy.
Across the net, you have to feel for Vondrousova, who has endured her share of personal pain a year after ascending to professional peak.
Last April, Vondrousova announced she and husband Stepan Simek were in the process of divorcing—and her husband had taken her beloved cat Frankie.
"I'm definitely not having a happy time in the last few weeks. My marriage with Stepan ended a few weeks ago, we broke up," Vondrousova told Czech website Blesk last April. "He moved out with the cat."
The divorce ends a near eight-year relationship. The couple, who began dating as teenagers back in 2006, got engaged around the 2020 Olympics. They wed on July 16th, 2022.
"It just didn't work out for us," Vondrousova said. "It wasn't what we both imagined, so we agreed not to be together anymore. "Now we are formally resolving the divorce, but we have agreed on everything."
Despite all she's been through, the Olympic silver medal champion showed mental mettle continuing to compete.
Despite today's defeat, Vondrousova will always have the memories of her magical Wimbledon run, raising the Rosewater Dish and the experience to know if she can regain her health, she is a threat on all surfaces.
"It's tough to go out defending the title. Yeah, I was really nervous from the morning and everything," Vondrousova said today. "Yeah, she was also playing good tennis, so that's kind of tough, too.
"You don't have many chances to, I don't know, just win free points maybe. She was returning also good. Yeah, my serve wasn't so good today. Overall, I think I wasn't at my best, and she was playing good."