Biggest upset of Wimbledon 2024 yet as defending champion Marketa Vondrousova bites the dust in 1R
Defending champion Marketa Vondrousova is out of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships after just one round, as the Czech crashed out of the tournament on Tuesday in her opener. Facing off against the unseeded Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Vondrousova lost in straight sets in an uncharacteristically poor display.
Vondrousova won her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last year, beating Ons Jabeur in the final. She beat the likes of Jessica Pegula and Elina Svitolina in the run up to the final, and became the first unseeded woman to win the title at SW19 in the process.
This year, however, the sixth seed went down with barely a fight in her first-round battle against Maneiro. After losing the first set 4-6, Vondrousova trailed by two breaks in the second and lost the set 6-2 against the Spaniard. The win marked Maneiro's first ever main draw victory at a Grand Slam, in her third Major appearance.
It should be noted that the defending champ was nursing an injury at Wimbledon this year, after suffering a nasty fall at the WTA 500 event in Berlin a few days back. She withdrew during the Round of 16 clash against Anna Kalinskaya, and came into Wimbledon highly short of match practice.
"I don't think of myself as a Wimbledon champion" - Marketa Vondrousova
Speaking at her pre-tournament press conference at Wimbledon, Marketa Vondrousova had spoken about how her life had changed after her title win last year. The Czech admitted that people saw her different now that she was a Grand Sam champion, but maintained that she herself did not feel any differently.
Vondrousova also spoke about how incredible it was for her every day to see the Wimbledon trophy at home, even is she tries to not think of herself as a Wimbledon champ. In her mind, Vondrousova emphasized, she will always remain herself, and not be defined as the winner of a tournament.
"Honestly, my life didn't change much. It just happened... I thought, 'Okay, now you're Wimbledon champion.' Maybe it did change more for the people around me. They look at you differently," Marketa Vondrousova said.
"Now I have the trophy at home, every day I look at it and think: 'Yes, this has happened.' I don't think winning a Grand Slam should change you as a person. I don't think of myself as a Wimbledon champion, I think of myself as Marketa, not as the winner of this tournament," she added.
Up next, Marketa Vondrousova is set to be in action at the Paris Olympics, where she is the defending runner-up.