Marketa Vondrousova beats Elina Svitolina in Wimbledon semi-final to reach second Grand Slam final

After Elina Svitolina’s struggle to reach the Wimbledon final came the struggle to hold back her tears as she reflected on what it all would have meant for her country.

The 28-year-old Ukrainian knew this was a golden opportunity to win something of much greater significance against an opponent who was in London purely as a tourist this time a year ago, recovering from wrist surgery.

But then Svitolina herself was heavily pregnant at the time, and she has nothing to blame herself for having just come up short.

She didn’t really show up on Center Court on Thursday and eventually lost 6-3 6-3 to the enchanting game of elegant lefthander Marketa Vondrousova.

Instead of Ukraine against Belarus in Saturday’s final, it will be Tunisia against the Czech Republic – no embarrassment in terms of royal protocols and no comparison to the symbolism that would have been at play.

She defeated Elina Svitolina (pictured) 6-3 6-3 in 75 minutes to reach her second Grand Slam final

Vondrousova consoled Svitolina at the net, who congratulated the winner in several scenes at the end of the Ukrainian match with Victoria Azarenka where there was no handshake

Svitolina was inconsolable that she won’t be there for another fight. She was on a flight back to France on Thursday evening to be reunited with her daughter Skai and husband Gael Monfils.

“Right now I’m just really angry that I couldn’t go on,” the world number 76 said with watery eyes, admitting that everything had weighed heavily on her.

“It’s certainly a lot of motivation, but it’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of tension. I tried to balance it as much as possible. Sometimes it might become too much. But I don’t want to take it as an excuse that I lost today.

“Maybe I should have handled the situation a little better. But I wouldn’t say I was too nervous. I just should have found a better way to handle Marketa’s style of play. She’s a very tough opponent, she gets a lot of balls back.’

Before leaving, she expressed her gratitude to the British tennis fans who wanted her, which was ultimately in vain as she made too many mistakes when dealing with the unusual variety of angles and spins Vondrousova can produce.

“I am very grateful to the crowd that supported me. They support us very much in different ways, many Ukrainians who came here when the war started.’

Svitolina hopes that the success of Ukrainian players at Wimbledon will prompt the WTA Tour to support them more. As a group, they still feel marginalized and there is currently a dispute between Lesia Tsurenko’s body and coach over things he allegedly said. The tour insists they have been honest in their dealings.

The fact remains that the tour will continue from here, the war will continue and the whole situation involving the Ukrainians will receive less attention than it has received in recent weeks.

Svitolina waved the crowd goodbye as her hopes of securing a famous Wimbledon title for Ukraine were dashed by the latest star rolling off the Czech production line in Vondrousova

Vondrousova admitted to being ‘crazy nervous’ when she described Svitolina as a ‘fighter’

Svitolina seemed cheated at times by Vondrousova who, at 42, becomes the second-lowest-ranked player to make the Wimbledon final in modern times, apart from when Serena Williams did it five years ago with a nominal odds of 181.

Her return after missing six months last year has received less publicity than Svitolina, but is equally surprising in some ways.

At Wimbledon last summer, she came as a visitor with her wrist in plaster after a double operation, combining a week’s holiday in the capital with supporting her friend and doubles partner Miriam Kolodziejova.

“We’ve been to the London Eye, things like that. We went shopping and went to some nice restaurants, I think we went shopping five times, it was kind of crazy. We just went to town as if we were regular tourists,” she recalls.

She had beaten Jo Konta in the semifinals of the 2019 French Open after an excellent start from the British player and is a mercurial talent with a swinging serve who can play every shot in the book. Another of the hugely effective Czech system, she actually hails from the same Prague club that produced recent French Open finalist Karolina Muchova.

Apart from a nervous stagger at 4-0 in the second set where she lost three games in a row, she was always in charge. Svitolina was sent off and received a huge ovation as she left Center Court.

Svitolina struggled for the consistency that characterized her previous matches, and it could hardly be argued that the Czech was not worthy of her victory.