Marketa Vondrousova was on a mission to become a finalist at
the French Open Friday. The 19-year-old who was in her third year of competition
on the clay courts, pulled off another major victory taking down 26th
seeded Johanna Konta
her sixth straight sets victory 7-5, 7-6(2) on Court Simone Mathieu on the
grounds of Rolland Garros. It marked the first time the Czech had ever made it
to a major final and stood tall as a high contender for a slam championship.
In what was the penultimate match of their careers was also
their third meeting and second this season. Konta went the distance against the
19 year old in Rome where she ran away with the victory on Rome’s clay courts.
Showing so much strength on the surface, Konta marked her second career
semifinal in a major and the one she hoped would send her to Saturday’s final.
Vondrousova had never gone anywhere
close to this level of competition in any of the big tournaments during the
regular season. With her yet to have dropped a set, the Czech teen wanted
nothing more than to keep that up as she faced the British number one. With a
guarantee of a new French Open champion, it would be up to both of them to
determine who from their end would enter the final match in Paris.
The teen earned first dibs at serving but was quickly broken
due to back to back double faults. The British number one consolidated a serve
to love to take a quick one way run of the set. Before she could get comfortable
with her offense, the 28-year-old faced Vondrousova pushing back with a hold in
the third. The fourth was the most highly contested as the young Czech looked
to keep Konta in reach. The Brit forced deuce saving the first of five break
points but couldn’t lock down an AD point.
The failure of losing ground was made up as she managed to
break back Vondrousova quickly in the fifth. The set began to quicken with both
handling serve that lasted three games and Konta standing with a 5-3 lead. In
an effort to avoid giving away the set on serve, Vondrousova saved two set
points to force deuce. The 19-year-old avoided a third before getting her own
chance to lock down the game.
The Brit served for it a second time but drew errors twice
to hand the Czech break point. She leveled it at five-all with her 16th
winner to send the set deep with the ball in hand. She pressured Konta to err
for consecutive points before easily putting the 11th game to rest.
She kept the assault on Konta’s game running to reach a break chance for the
set that ended with the Brit trying to set up for the return but instead
watched the ball catch the inside of the court to end 55 minutes. Vondrousova
outscored Konta by a minimal amount but had the better serve output that got
her in position to gain more control.
She held serve to start the second but lost the next two
with Konta converting a break in the third. The short break was all that occurred
through seven games as each held firm through the next four giving up no more
than one or two points to the returner. With the break in hand, Konta continued
to lead but had Vondrousova at her heels looking for a shot at leveling back. Konta
avoided that from happening to push the Czech to the baseline where she erred
on Deuce to hand the Brit her shot at forcing the decider.
The Czech denied her that key break in the ninth and pushed
her to either do it on her own or send the two nearer to a set tiebreak. Vondrousova
responded well on the return side that included a great stance near the net
where she gave it right back to the Brit that ultimately sent them into extra
frames. The 19-year-old secured the hold in the 11th to serve for the
match just as the rain began to fall harder. Konta refused to go down in flames
and started the 12th with a well-placed lob at the net.
Pressing the issue at hand, Konta drew errors from the Czech
before scoring a line drive winners that gave her a chance to force a third set
with the tiebreak left to contest. Vondrousova got the first two points before Konta
got on the board. When the Brit gained her second, the 19-year-old already had
the lead at 3-2. Her two points would be the last the 28-year-old would win at Roland
Garros as Vondrousova went on to take the next three straight for match point which
she didn’t let get away ending another brilliant run that took her 1 hour and
45 minutes to do.
“It was a very tough
match today,” Vondrousova said during her on-court interview. “I’m happy that I
kept my nerves at the end and I’m just so happy with everything here.” She will
take on Australian powerhouse Ashleigh Barty who stopped the final from
becoming an all-teen matchup with her three-set win over American Amanda Anisimova.
