The 2019 French Open finalist, Vondrousova, was ruthless as she thumped the more fancied Elina Svitolina in straight-sets to become the first unseeded player in 60 years to reach the final of the grass-court Grand Slam.

Vondrousova beat Svitolina 6-3 and 6-3 to head into the championship match.

The 24-year-old said that after spending six months away from tennis due to an injury last year, returning was not easy, but reaching a Wimbledon final makes it sweet.

“It's not always easy to come back,” she said.

“You don't know if you can play at this level and if you can be back at the top and back at these tournaments.

“I'm just grateful to be on a court again, to play without pain. I'm just really grateful for it.”

“To think I could do it here on grass, it was almost impossible because I didn't play many matches on grass before.

“My best one was the second round. If it was on clay or hard, maybe I would say maybe it's possible. But grass was impossible for me. It's even crazier that this is happening.”

In the other semi-final, the 6th seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia beat the world number two and much more fancied Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in three-sets. Jabeur won the match 6-7, 6-4 and 6-3 to set up a date with Vondrousova.

Jabeur said it was all about channelling her energy in the right direction.

“I'm working on myself like crazy. You have no idea what I'm doing. I'm very tough with myself, trying to improve everything. Very impatient sometimes, which is not good.

“For me, I always believed in mentally working on it. Mentally you can always win, even if you are not ready physically. That's probably what happened in the last two matches.”

The ladies singles final will be played on Saturday afternoon. On Friday afternoon Carlos Alcaraz will face Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic takes on Jannik Sinner in the men’s semi-finals.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport