"Tennis is crazy"

For the first time in history, an unseeded player has won the women's singles championship at the famed Wimbledon tennis tournament, held each summer in suburban London. Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia today, 6-4, 6-4, to take the title. 

To say this was unexpected would be a gross understatement. Vondrousova, 24, came out of nowhere, really. Before this Wimbledon she had won only four matches on grass courts in her lifetime. A year ago, she was a spectator at this event, having recently undergone wrist surgery. Now her name is on the wall inside the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

I wrote earlier in the week about how hard it is for a player to make it to the last weekend at Wimbledon. The opponents get better and better as the tourney grinds on, and you have to beat six of them to make it to the finals. Many players run out of steam, physically and emotionally. Marketa was the only one of this year's final four women who didn't. 

In the semi-finals, her opponent, Elina Svitolina from Ukraine, whom I had forecasted to beat her, didn't really show up until about an hour into the match, and by then it was far too late. Today Jabeur, seeded No. 6, just didn't seem to have her A game with her, and whatever the problem was, Vondrousova upended her with a flawless version of the same stuff that Jabeur is accustomed to dishing out. You would have thought this match would go three sets – that's how I bet it – but Ons couldn't win one. She was soundly defeated, and afterward, devastated.

The winner couldn't quite believe her achievement. "Tennis is crazy," she said, more than once, as she showed off the trophy around the grounds.

They played with the roof closed. Even though it wasn't raining, it was windy outside. I'm not sure I liked that call. The elements always inject an interesting element into the competition. We'll see what the conditions and decision are for tomorrow's men's final.

Which has shaped up to be, in contrast to today's proceedings, no surprise whatsoever. As just about everyone knew all along, it's the No. 1 seed, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, against the No. 2 seed, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. Those guys were putting on quite a show in the semi-finals in Paris last month before Carlitos, at age 20 younger than the Djoker by 16 years, succumbed to cramps. The kid had better be eating his Swiss chard and drinking his Gatorade tonight. Tomorrow will probably be the biggest day of his life so far.