One of two players will earn their first career Grand Slam title in Saturday’s women’s final at Wimbledon.
On paper, No. 6 seed Ons Jabeur would appear to have a significant edge. Once ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, this will be Jabeur’s third career Grand Slam final and she’s the first woman to reach back-to-back finals at Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2018-19.
She fell to Elena Rybakina in three sets in last year’s final, falling just short in her quest to become the first African and Arab tennis player in history to win a Grand Slam.
Jabeur is the -210 favorite at DraftKings and has even shorter odds at BetMGM, where she is being offered at -225 to beat unseeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova.
Vondrousova, who is the +170 underdog at DraftKings and +185 at BetMGM, is in her second career Grand Slam final. The 24-year-old achieved a career-high ranking of No. 14 in the world four years ago while falling to Ashleigh Barty in the French Open final, and certainly can’t be discounted.
Not after she dismantled former No. 3-ranked player Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals. The one knock against Vondrousova’s run to the finals is that she has beaten only one top-10 player — No. 4 Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals. But even Pegula has yet to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.
Jabeur, 28, has faced a much more challenging road to Saturday’s final.
After cruising through her first two matches, Jabeur had to rally to beat former U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu in three sets. She clobbered No. 9 seed Petra Kvitova in straight sets before again rallying from a set down to upset Rybakina in a rematch of last year’s final.
Next up was one of the heavy pre-tournament favorites in No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka. Jabeur lost the opening set for the third time in four matches before gritting out 6-4, 6-3 wins in the final two sets.
Vondrousova is the fourth Czech woman to reach the Wimbledon final, joining Jana Novotna, Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova. She is the first unseeded woman to reach the final at the All England Club since Billie Jean Moffitt (later King) in 1963.
Who controls the nerves the most likely will play a major role in Saturday’s match.
Jabeur acknowledged in the Netflix documentary “Break Point” that she was extremely nervous during last year’s Wimbledon final, while Vondrousova said she was battling “crazy nerves” trying to close out Svitolina on Thursday.
DraftKings is offering a prop on Jabeur’s Total Games Won at 12.5 and Vondrousova’s at 11.5. The shortest odds on the match outcome is +120 on Jabeur winning in straight sets.
–Field Level Media