“I never practise that,” says Marketa Vondrousova, grinning. “For me, it just comes naturally.”

Vondrousova is talking about an outrageous shot she hit in the final game of the first set of Thursday’s straight-sets win over Elina Svitolina that took her into a first-ever Wimbledon final.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a squash-style (though not quite squash style as we’ll hear later) forehand on the run that whistles crosscourt past Svitolina who is at the net.

Roger Federer used to pull it off from time to time, but it’s so rarely spotted, and something that is only possible if you have exceptional hands and feel.

Advertisement

“I couldn’t play a forehand, so that was the one thing I could do,” Vondrousova continues. “It’s maybe 50-50 if you make it or not. Actually, I don’t think it’s even 50-50. It’s maybe 30-70 that you can make it.

“But you can always try.”

Vondrousova is that kind of player. She tries things. They don’t always come off, but against Svitolina they did more times than not, and the Ukrainian had no answer to Vondrousova’s beguiling mixture of spin and slice.

A final against the similarly inventive Ons Jabeur on Saturday awaits.

But for those of you who don’t know much about Vondrousova, let’s zoom in on one of the shots of the tournament to get you better acquainted…

First things first, Vondrousova is a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, a powerhouse of a tennis nation — especially on the women’s side. A leftie, she employs a wicked range of spins that four years ago took her to the French Open final aged 19. She lost in straight sets to Ashleigh Barty but reached a career-high ranking of No 14 soon after. As a 17-year-old, she won her first main-tour event in only her second tournament.

She is ranked No 42 now, working her way back to the top of the game after an awful 2022 that saw her out of competitive action between April and October after having wrist surgery (the second of her career, and one of the most dreaded injuries for a tennis player). She spent last year’s Wimbledon with her wrist in a cast, supporting her friend Miriam Kolodziejova playing in qualifying and living the life of a tourist. Shopping, going on the London Eye, that kind of thing.

Vondrousova has so many tattoos that she’s lost count and a pet cat called Frankie, who her husband Stepan has been looking after. The Vondrousovas have though found a cat-sitter for the weekend so Stepan can fly over to London for the final.

On the court, she is a very exciting player to watch, with a variety of spins and angles that scrambles her opponents’ minds.

Advertisement

All of which is encompassed in Thursday’s sensational shot…

Svitolina is serving to stay in the first set of the semi-final, down 3-5 in games but leading 30-0. If she wins this point, she’ll have three game points to force Vondrousova to serve out the set.

Vondrousova is pulled wide by Svitolina’s serve and is almost outside of the tramlines when she hits her backhand return.

Svitolina tries to capitalise on that by hitting a backhand towards the opposite corner.

Vondrousova hares after the ball, and begins her preparation for the shot.

“See how when she’s running, she raises her racquet hand,” says Craig O’Shannessy, a strategy coach for the ATP Tour who has also worked with players such as the men’s world No 1 Novak Djokovic.

“It starts to go up and you see she stays there for a second and just judges and gauges it. Having her hand up like that gives her more control. So, for one or two steps it just stays in the same position. It isn’t moving. Her left hand stays in the exact same position for a step or two.

“She starts high, comes down and actually, it looks completely crazy but if you prepare like she does it’s really not that tough a shot. Getting the preparation perfect is the hard part.

“(Roger) Federer used to hit that a lot. Yeah, that’s a Fed special, that one. It’s like a squash shot but it isn’t quite because when you hit it in squash you want to hit it flatter.

“What’s key here is the backspin, which is the control spin in tennis — not top spin.

“To get that backspin you have to use your wrist. It’s all wrist.”

This shot then is even more impressive given that Vondrousova has had an operation on that wrist.

“The key is the angle she comes in at,” O’Shannessy continues. “Which means she’s cutting under it as well as coming around it. It’s that which gives it the backspin and means she can really swing hard at it. This is definitely an all-or-nothing endeavour.”

Advertisement

What are the main challenges with this kind of shot? “Sometimes you can get too much backspin and float it and it just kind of keeps rising,” O’Shannessy replies.

“Sometimes you chop down on it and goes in the net, but she got that blend right. Coming down through it to get backspin, but not too much so it’s all there. Even though the arm’s still moving quite a long way it’s a wrist shot.

“Most players would try the lob here — typically when you’re in that defensive position, throwing up a lob is a good idea. That would be option one.

“Or maybe she hits it right at Svitolina and might get another ball, but this is hit very hard and it’s a frozen rope — it just goes dead straight and she got the height just right.”

The crowd gasps in admiration, while a thrilled Martina Navratilova, another leftie born and raised in what was then Czechoslovakia, says admiringly: “Slice and dice baby.”

Vondrousova wins the next couple of points en route to winning the game and with it the set. The match followed not long after, and with that one shot the Centre Court crowd saw exactly what Vondrousova is about.

Next up is the final against Jabeur, where Vondrousova will hope to hit a few more outrageous winners.

Just don’t expect to see her practising them.

(Photo: Robert Prange/Getty Images)

GO DEEPER

Inside the Lionel Messi to Inter Miami deal — seeing off Saudis, equity offers and Beckham and Co.'s secret trip

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k29vcmtnaXxzfJFsZmlvX2aAcMLOp5urp6WovLetjKyjopuVYrOmsMSrnKtlp566o7jEnaanZaOrtrW7y6Klmmc%3D