The irony of a 6-4, 6-2 reversal that gives the 25-year-old Czech an unwanted place in the record books alongside Steffi Graf, who became the first defending women’s champion to go out in the opening round when she was beaten by Lori McNeil 30 years ago, will not be lost on Vondrousova. 

Last summer, she arrived in SW19 with just one win from four previous visits, and left as the first unseeded women’s winner in history. This year, she walked through the gates of the All England Club as the defending champion, and was beaten by a woman who had never previously claimed a main-draw victory at a major. 

Such are the sport’s vicissitudes, not least at Wimbledon, where an eighth different champion in eight years will be crowned on Saturday week unless Elena Rybakina, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse, can repeat her title triumph of two years ago.

There were mitigating circumstances for Vondrousova, who retired from her last-16 match against Anna Kalinskaya in Berlin last month after suffering a hip injury, and here she appeared hesitant from the outset, with three of her seven double faults coming in the opening game. As she admitted afterwards, however, her travails were as much mental as physical.

“Today I was a bit scared, you know, because of my leg too, but I don’t think that was the reason [I lost],” said Vondrousova. “I felt nervous from the start, but she was also playing a good match. 

“Overall, it was very tough. It’s tough feelings also to go back. I feel like everybody just expects you to win maybe, so that’s tough too. I was happy to be back on the Centre Court, but it just didn’t go as planned today.”

As Vondrousova laboured under the weight of expectation, Bouzas Maneiro rose to the occasion magnificently. Encouraged by her opponent’s shaky start and alive to the dangers inherent in the wily Czech’s game, the 21-year-old never appeared overawed, holding her ground in the baseline exchanges, varying her service patterns with craft and intelligence, and visibly growing in belief as the match wore on. 

Vondrousova, meanwhile, committed 28 unforced errors, her erratic performance epitomised by a string of misses as Bouzas Maneiro served for the opening set. Stick or twist, nothing seemed to work for the champion, who erred with a pair of big forehands, then changed tack to no avail, sending a more conservative chipped backhand long. As Vondrousova thrashed a final backhand into the net to go a set down, Bouzas Maneiro roared in triumph, turning to her box with a clenched fist and a look of steel in her eyes.

Having dropped serve again at the start of the second set, Vondrousova broke back immediately, just as she had done in the opener. But Bouzas Maneiro was not to be denied, moving ahead for a second time after drawing an error with a deep return, then spearing a backhand winner to consolidate her advantage with a love hold. Even as Vondrousova held in the next game, staying in touch with a brilliant running lob, she grimaced. The Czech would soon be put out of her agony. With 68 minutes gone, Bouzas Maneiro steered a placement down the line to claim the biggest win of her career.

“In my mind, I think that I had no pressure today to play against her,” said Bouzas Maneiro. “Of course, first round is difficult for these players who won the last year. But I had no idea about [Vondrousova feeling nervous].

“I know she’s an amazing tennis player and she has a good level, so I was trying to not think about it, just thinking about myself, thinking I had no pressure. Of course, I was thinking that maybe she had a little bit more pressure than me.”

Iga Swiatek, who knows plenty about such pressures, came through a testing opener against Sofia Kenin, the former Australian Open champion, in straight sets. Despite electing not to play any matches on grass following her French Open victory last month, the Polish world No 1 looked sharp as she despatched Kenin 6-3, 6-4 to notch up her 20th straight win.

“For sure it was a solid start, and not an easy draw, so I’m happy that I have a chance to play another match here,” said Swiatek. “Nowadays on the WTA [Tour] it’s pretty easy to play against grand slam champions even in the first round, so we have to be ready for everything. These are experienced players, so there’s no time to get into the tournament slowly, you need to be ready straight away.” 

Vondrousova, shorn of her title and set to drop out of the world’s top 10 when the revised ranking list is published after Wimbledon, can attest to the truth of that sentiment.

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Swiatek, a quarter-finalist last time out, will get her campaign underway against former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who defeated Coco Gauff in the opening round 12 months ago. It will be a repeat of their first-round meeting in Melbourne earlier this year, which Swiatek won in two hard-fought sets. The 23-year-old also defeated Kenin to win her first title at Roland Garros in 2020.

Swiatek could face Germany’s Angelique Kerber, whose three grand slam victories include the 2018 Wimbledon title, in round three, ahead of a projected meeting with Jelena Ostapenko, another former major winner. The 13th-seeded Latvian has won all four of their previous meetings – although, if she is to get a crack at a fifth, Ostapenko will first need to negotiate an intriguing opener against Alja Tomljanovic, the Australian wild card who accused her of faking injury during a feisty third-round win in 2021.

Swiatek is projected to face Marketa Vondousova, the Czech defending champion, in the last eight. Vondrousova will play Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain in the first round and could go up against Danielle Collins, the 11th-seeded American who is competing at Wimbledon for the final time, in the last 16. 

If the seedings hold, Swiatek will play former champion Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals. The 25-year-old from Kazakhstan opens against Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and could face Ons Jabeur, whom she defeated to win the title two summers ago, for the third year in a row in the last 16. The Tunisian, seeded 10th, will begin her bid to reach a third straight final against Moyuka Uchijima of Japan. 

In the bottom half, third seed Aryna Sabalenka will open her campaign against Emina Bektas of the United States. The Belarusian, who practised with Jabeur on Centre Court shortly after the draw was made on Friday morning, is expected to face Qinwen Zheng in the last eight, in what would be a repeat of this year’s Australian Open final. 

Propping up the draw is Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, who will start her first major as the world No 2 against fellow American Caroline Dolehide. Should the 20-year-old advance to the last eight for the first time, she could face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, the eighth seed and French Open finalist, who reached the Eastbourne semi-finals this week.

Domestic interest will centre on Emma Raducanu, who opens against Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 22nd seed, and Katie Boulter, the British No 1, who faces a potentially tricky start against former semi-finalist Tatjana Maria.

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In a match of fine shot-making and fine margins, the Polish world No 1 suffered her first defeat in three visits to the WTA 500 event in Stuttgart, a 10-match unbeaten run coming to an end as Rybakina edged a tight deciding set to prevail 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. 

Two months after she ended a run of three straight losses against the 24-year-old from Kazakhstan to win the Qatar Open, a fourth defeat in six meetings with Rybakina leaves Swiatek with food for thought. This was the first defeat of her career in a clay-court semi-final, and her second reversal in two matches with Rybakina on the red dirt, after she was forced to retire with a leg injury early in the deciding set of their semi-final meeting at last year’s Italian Open. 

Nonetheless, Swiatek is as unlikely to dwell on the significance of losing on an indoor clay court laid on wood, conditions a world away from those she will encounter at Roland Garros next month, as she is to fixate on her record against Rybakina. She leaves Stuttgart with a pair of solid wins over Elise Mertens and Emma Raducanu, and perhaps a quiet sense of relief that she will no longer have to face the challenging post-match questions posed by Heinz Günthardt, a former top-30 player whose entertaining on-court interviews with the Pole have been a highlight of the week.

“She had struggles with some injuries, but every time she’s healthy she is playing well,” said Swiatek when asked what makes Rybakina such a tough opponent. “There are specific aspects of her game that are hard, but I wouldn’t say there is one specific [thing]. She’s a good player. That’s all.”   

In a contest that once again highlighted Rybakina’s ability to discomfit Swiatek with her heavy serve and flat, penetrating groundstrokes, it was invariably the player who landed the first big strike that came out on top in the baseline exchanges. Swiatek, three of whose four grand slam titles have come at the French Open, is normally able to make her supreme movement and athleticism tell on clay, staying in points long enough to counterpunch in the rare passages when she is unable to dictate from the back of the court. Here, though, Rybakina’s weight of shot nullified that advantage, instead placing a premium on holding serve. No factor was more decisive than the former Wimbledon champion’s ability to fend off all but two of the 13 break points she faced. 

“Iga moves really well and she likes to dominate in the rally,” said Rybakina after reaching her fifth final of a season in which she has notched up a tour-leading 25 wins. “With me, it’s difficult because I play fast, I play flatter, and also like to move the opponent. 

“It’s a matchup where we are both pushing each other, both trying to dominate in the point. I think, of course, my serve helps a lot.”

That much is undeniable. Given Swiatek’s ability to stretch a lead, Rybakina’s repeated success in warding off danger on serve was never more crucial than when she saved a pair of break points to avoid going a double break down at the start of the match. Had the Pole broken then, she might have run away with the set – and, given the rarity with which she is beaten after going ahead, the match. Instead, Rybakina pulled off a run of five straight games, putting the onus on Swiatek to hold. The top seed rose to the challenge impressively, saving 14 consecutive break points until she was finally broken in the fifth game of the decider.

“I doubted my serve a little bit in the third set,” said Swiatek. “For sure it wasn’t easy to see her winning her service games pretty easily, and me struggling on every game. I think at the end it made a difference.”

In the final, Rybakina will face Marta Kostyuk, the Ukrainian world No 27, who defeated Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets to reach her second final of the season. Kostyuk, who was beaten by Britain’s Katie Boulter in last month’s San Diego final, continued an extraordinary week’s work with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 victory over the Wimbledon champion, although the outcome was in the balance when she found herself in a first-set tiebreak after holding a 5-1 lead.

For Kostyuk, the first Ukrainian to make a final in Stuttgart, it was merely the latest in a series of cliffhangers. Taken the distance in each of her first three matches, the 21-year-old saved five match points against Qinwen Zheng, while an impressive three-set win over Coco Gauff came only on her eighth match point.

“I came here on Saturday and I practised four days before my first match, and really I was playing worse and worse with every day,” said Kostyuk. “I was, like, ‘OK, time to play some matches, because I don’t want to practise any more.’ I was not feeling great at all. I’m not talking about physically, but generally I didn’t feel good on court. 

“In tennis, everything is very close. It’s like you can really feel very bad, but then have the best week of your career, like happened to me. 

“I think its [about] trusting the process. I really excelled this week, and I tried in every match to just do as much as I can, and things are getting better.”

With three top-10 wins behind her – over an Australian Open finalist and the reigning US Open and Wimbledon champions, no less – how dearly Kostyuk would like to maintain her stellar trajectory against Rybakina on Sunday.

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“Not really,” replied the 24-year-old. “It’s too early to say if it’s a big three, big four. I think some years should pass and we all need to continue playing well.”

Years? A cynic might counter that it has taken less than a week to disprove the notion. 

The Dubai Tennis Championships were billed as the first collision of the world’s top four since the Australian Open; instead, as the business end of the tournament heaves into view, Swiatek is the only seeded player left standing. The Polish top seed defeated Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals, where she will be the lone standard bearer for the world’s top 20 and a red-hot favourite to add a second straight WTA 1000 title to last week’s triumph in Doha. Not that the 22-year-old is not getting carried away. 

“I’m not thinking about winning the title, because I try to do everything step by step,” said Swiatek in her on-court interview. “All these players that are playing this tournament are really great, any of us can win. I try just to stay humble and focused on only the next step, and if by any chance I’m going to win the tournament, it’s going to be just an effect. No point in overanalysing that.” 

Be that as it may, not even Swiatek could deny her prospects looked brighter by the end of a day that, after starting with three of the four reigning grand slam champions in contention, ended in utter carnage.

The exodus was led by Marketa Vondrousova, the Czech seventh seed, who saw six match points come and go as she fell victim to an extraordinary fightback from Sorana Cirstea of Romania. It has been a difficult start to the season for Vondrousova, who struggled with sickness in Australia and arrived in Dubai short of match practice. But for an hour or so, the 24-year-old looked every inch the player who stormed to the Wimbledon title last summer. Mixing heavy groundstrokes with short angles, drop shots and lobs, Vondrousova opened up a 6-2, 5-1 lead. 

The emphatic nature of that scoreline was misleading, however. Cirstea had competed fiercely throughout, her power and athletic defensive play keeping the points close even as her unforced errors stacked up. But with defeat seemingly inevitable, the 33-year-old resolved to go down swinging; if she couldn’t win, the least she could do was entertain the fans who continued to chant her name in loud, chopped syllables. Cirstea saved two match points with aces, another with a winning volley, and forced the play on three others to lay the foundations for what she described as “the biggest comeback of my career”.

“I looked over at the clock and I saw it was only one hour of play,” said Cirstea after completing an improbable 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 victory. “I was having such great support. I said, ‘OK, let’s try to win one more game for the public, make it a little bit longer.’ 

“I think that thing took the pressure away from me. I started to find my game.”

By the time Cirstea was done, another Wimbledon champion had exited the tournament without striking a ball after Rybakina withdrew with a gastrointestinal problem. 

“Unfortunately, I was not feeling well overnight,” announced the fourth-seeded Kazakhstani. “Since I am not feeling 100% ready to compete, I have decided to pull out from my quarter-final match.”

Rybakina’s withdrawal means the event is guaranteed at least one unseeded finalist, with Jasmine Paolini of Italy advancing to face Cirstea in what will be the 28-year-old’s first semi-final appearance at this level. Paolini, ranked four places below the Romanian at No 26, has won both their previous meetings.

Vondrousova was later followed out of the tournament by Coco Gauff, the third seed and US Open champion, who was undone by a free-hitting display from Anna Kalinskaya, a Russian qualifier ranked 40th in the world. Kalinskaya, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko in the previous round, prevailed 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to claim her second victory over a grand slam champion in as many days. The Russian, a straight-sets winner over defied an upper back injury to .

In her first appearance on the tournament’s main court, it took time for Kalinskaya to find her range. A brilliant ball-striker who favours high-risk, high-reward tennis, the 25-year-old was unable to find the right balance in the opening set, committing 11 unforced errors and winning barely a quarter of her second-serve points. She was not helped by an upper back injury that required a medical timeout and briefly seemed serious enough to raise doubts about whether she would continue.

Once she settled, though, Kalinskaya was irresistible, her self-belief evident as she controlled the tempo of the baseline exchanges, drilling her backhand with regal authority in the face of Gauff’s dogged retrieving.

“I started a little bit not so confident,” said Kalinskaya, a surprise quarter-finalist at last month’s Australian Open. “I was getting used to the surface. I didn’t get the chance to play on centre court, I felt the speed of the bounce was a bit different. I couldn’t find my timing.  

“In the second set, I calmed down a little bit more and I played point by point till the end of the match. I could feel the tension till the last point. She kept bringing so many balls back, so I had to stay really patient and decide which ball to go and finish the point.”

Having struggled against Karolina Pliskova in the previous round, where she became embroiled in a protracted dispute with French chair umpire Pierre Bacchi, Gauff’s second defeat in four matches concluded a forgettable Middle East swing for the American world No 3. 

With Sabalenka beaten by Donna Vekic in her opening match on Tuesday, the big four becomes a big one. Swiatek now has seven consecutive straight-set wins under her belt and, unlike her peers, appears to have been largely untroubled by the transition from Doha to Dubai. Her caution is understandable, particularly given the power at Kalinskaya’s disposal, but it is hard not to like the Pole’s chances.

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The 29-year-old Tunisian said after her 6-4, 6-3 win that she also has plans to set up a foundation to “help people in different situations”. 

“I haven’t been very happy lately to be honest,” said Jabeur in her post-match interview. “The situation in the world doesn’t make me happy.

“It’s very tough seeing children, babies, dying every day. It’s heart-breaking. So I have decided to donate part of my prize money to help the Palestinians. I cannot be happy with just this win.”

Addressing the crowd, she continued: “I’m sorry guys, it’s supposed to be about tennis, but it’s very frustrating looking at videos every day. I’m sorry, it’s not a political message here, just humanity. I want peace in this world and that’s it.”

Jabeur later posted a video of the emotional aftermath of the match on Instagram, writing that she hoped to make the win – which brought a measure of payback for this summer’s agonising defeat to Vondrousova in the Wimbledon final – “count beyond a tennis court”. 

After suffering a decisive defeat to Coco Gauff in her opening match in Chetumal Group, Jabeur will face Iga Swiatek on Friday with her hopes of advancing to the semi-finals still intact. Victory would take her earnings for the tournament to roughly half a million dollars and potentially open a path to the final, where the winner will received an additional $1.4m. Any donation could therefore be sizeable, but prize money and points standings were far from Jabeur’s thoughts as she reflected on the situation in the Middle East.

“A tennis match doesn’t mean anything in front of what’s happening right now,” the sixth seed said in press. “I try to stay off social media as much as I can, but it’s very tough. You go through video, photos, videos – there are horrible, horrible photos every day. It doesn’t help me sleep or recover very well.

“The worst thing is, I feel hopeless, I feel like I cannot do anything. I wish I could have a magic hand and just end all this and [create] peace for everybody. It is frustrating. Maybe donating some money would help a little bit with what they’ve been going through, but I know money doesn’t mean anything right now to them. I wish freedom for everybody, and peace for everyone.”

Jabeur expressed support for Palestine on social media last month, condemning violence on both sides but insisting she could not support “people having their lands taken”. Her words drew a sharp response from the Israel Tennis Federation, which accused her in a Facebook post of supporting “a murderous terrorist organisation”. Israeli officials subsequently filed a formal complaint to the WTA.

“What Palestinians have been going through during the last 75 years is indescribable,” Jabeur wrote on Instagram. “What innocent civilians are going through is indescribable; no matter what their religion is, or what their origin is. 

“Violence will never bring peace; I cannot stand with violence, but I also cannot stand with people having their lands taken.”

Jabeur will have her work cut out against Swiatek, who exuded physical and mental intensity as she assumed control of the group with a 6-0, 7-5 against Gauff. Despite the blustery conditions, the Polish world No 2 began at full throttle, storming through a one-sided first set before Gauff claimed a break early in the second. With the American finding her range, Swiatek continued to press, hitting through the wind and making some impressive forays to the net. 

Gauff survived an attritional 12-minute service game to hold for 4-2, and although some stout defensive play hauled Swiatek level in the eighth game, Gauff subsequently broke for a second time with a precise forehand pass. A decider looked inevitable, but four straight double faults from the US Open champion handed Swiatek a reprieve and, with Gauff’s frustration evident, the Pole surged for the line.

“I would say this match wasn’t consistent, in terms of the level,” said Swiatek, who later hit out at the WTA over changes to next season’s tournament schedule. “So for sure, adjusting to everything that happened was the most important thing. It took me a while, because I was a break down in the second set. I’m happy that I could problem solve.

“The key was being confident and mentally not focusing on the score, but really just sticking with the plan that worked in the first set.”

Jabeur will need to come up with a plan of her own if she is to find a way past Swiatek and claim a place in the semi-finals. Yet the Tunisian, who was frequently at war with herself against Vondrousova as she struggled to come to terms with the conditions, is also looking beyond the immediate.

“It’s part of my plan to not be just an athlete but also a good ambassador, a good human being,” said Jabeur. “After all, the tennis career will stop [one day] and all I want to do is help people in different situations. I will be creating my own foundation very soon.”

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If the stars align for the 22-year-old Pole in the Mexican beach resort of Cancún, she may have an opportunity to reclaim the world No 1 ranking she relinquished to Aryna Sabalenka following last month’s US Open. But Swiatek, who is likely to need a near-perfect run to keep that hope alive, had her back to the wall in the early stages of her Chetumal Group opener against Marketa Vondrousova, dropping five of the first seven games to the Czech seventh seed.

At an event where the hastily-laid stadium court has been roundly criticised by the eight-woman field, Swiatek laboured in vain to strike a balance between consistency and aggression. Once she found her range, though, the four-time grand slam champion moved smoothly through the gears, producing a timely first ace to bring up three set points before pulling away to win 7-6 (7-3), 6-0.

“It doesn’t happen often, so for sure I’m going to take a lesson from that, that I can come back from any score,” said Swiatek following her recovery from 2-5 down. 

“Even during the first part of the match, I wasn’t feeling like I was playing bad, I just felt like I was making mistakes. Overall, I was building up the rally, but then the last shot I was missing.

“So I thought that there is for sure room for improvement. It’s not like I had to change a lot, I just wanted to be more precise and more solid and not play risky, just keep my margins.”

The numbers bore out that analysis. Fifteen of Swiatek’s 22 unforced errors came in the opening set, and the bulk of those came early on as she struggled to come to terms with the tricky combination of Vondrousova’s southpaw spin and her first competitive appearance on a court where practice time has been at a premium.

Even as Vondrousova forged ahead, though, she was solid rather than spectacular. And after the 24-year-old Wimbledon champion delivered the third of her five double faults at 3-6 down in the tiebreak, her intensity and belief quickly waned. It was an all too familiar tale for Vondrousova, who lost to Swiatek by a near-identical scoreline this summer in Cincinnati after twice serving for the opening set, just as she did here.

Short of inspiration but not short of opinions, Vondrousova had much to say afterwards. Like Sabalenka, who remarked after her opening-day win over Maria Sakkari that she feels unsafe moving on a playing surface that was barely laid in time for the tournament’s commencement, Vondrousova took aim at both the court and the WTA.

“The court is honestly very bad, it’s very crazy,” said Vondrousova. “It bounces everywhere, and I feel like it’s almost like, I don’t know, bad clay or grass courts, it’s not even hard courts. I’m not saying that because I lost, I felt the same way in practice also. I don’t think this court is very good for the WTA Finals to be honest.”

Vondrousova later took to social media to elaborate on her criticism.

“My first WTA Finals is not at all what I imagined,” she wrote on Instagram. “We work hard all year to get to the finals and in the end it’s just a disappointment.

“[The] stadium is not at all ready for the matches, and to me it feels like the people from the WTA are absolutely not interested in how we, who are supposed to play on that court, feel. We do not feel that anyone listens to us and is interested in our opinions. Very sad.”

Even Swiatek, who has so far been more measured than most of her rivals in her assessment of the event’s chaotic organisation, acknowledged that the situation was less than ideal.

“Obviously it’s not a positive thing for any of us, but I think the main thing is not focusing on that and just doing your job,” said the French Open champion. “Sometimes it bounces weirdly on clay or on the grass as well, so I try to think in that perspective and just do my job. 

“For sure it’s not comfortable, and the fact that we also didn’t have time to practise on this court. But at the end it doesn’t really matter, because all of us have the same court and the same conditions.”

Coco Gauff, the American third seed, enjoyed a more comfortable start to her group campaign, claiming a maiden win at the finals with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Ons Jabeur. The Tunisian was off the pace from the outset, struggling to find her customary touch and consistency, and although she returned from an hour-long rain delay to make a belated impression on the scoreboard, Gauff was not to be denied.

“She played really good today,” said Jabeur, who will face Vondrousova on Wednesday. “Not my best day on the court, but that’s tennis sometimes, unfortunately.”

Gauff afterwards confirmed that she has parted ways with Pere Riba, the Spanish coach with whom she has worked for the past five months. Riba, who together with Brad Gilbert guided the American teenager to her first grand slam title at last month’s US Open, ended the arrangement due to “family issues of a personal nature”. 

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t my decision, but we had to end the partnership,” said the 19-year-old. “I had a great time with him and I wish him the best in his next chapter. If it was up to me, I would have loved to have him here but, you know, things happen, life happens. No bad terms on our end.  

“Sometimes people think it’s bigger than it is, but some things just didn’t work out and that’s all. I still think that he was a great guy, and obviously he did amazing things for me personally and also for my game.”

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Given the blustery conditions in the Mexican resort city of Cancún, Jabeur’s quick hands and exquisite feel may well put her among the title favourites. To most observers, however, the figure that really matters is No 1. That is the position Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek will dispute at the final stop on this season’s WTA Tour, where the champion will pocket up to 1,500 points – enough to either bridge or expand the 630-point gap between the two best players on the planet.

For the past seven weeks, bragging rights in the race to claim the year-end No 1 ranking have belonged to Sabalenka, who will be hoping to end the year in the same triumphant vein she began it when she stormed to a maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open. The mighty Belarusian, the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the semi-finals or better at all four majors in the same calendar year, realised a lifelong ambition at last month’s US Open, rising to top spot for the first time despite losing to Coco Gauff in the final. The magnitude of that achievement is not lost on the 25-year-old, but neither has it gone to her head. 

“I wish I had known earlier that I can play that good,” quipped Sabalenka on the eve of her opener against Sakkari. “It’s just [been a] super great season, I think the best season in my life so far.

“[But] I think ranking, it’s just ranking, you know? It’s not like I go on court right now and everyone will be, ‘OK, I’m not playing, you’re No 1, good luck in the next round.’ It’s not changing anything. I still need to work hard. I still need to bring my best tennis on court. I think I even need to work more, because right now I feel like I’m a target for everyone.”

The latter sentiment is one Swiatek will recognise only too well. The Pole spoke of the pressures of playing with a target on her back as long ago as March, long before a fourth-round defeat to Jelena Ostapenko at Flushing Meadows drew a line under her 75-week reign at No 1. Swiatek reiterated that stance earlier this month at the China Open, her only tournament since, expressing her relief at being able to return to the practice court unencumbered by the “baggage” that goes with the top ranking. She certainly had the air of a player liberated, showcasing some intriguing technical and tactical improvements as she claimed her first WTA 1000 title of the season. 

That newfound adaptability, evident in Beijing in a relentless display of net-rushing against Sara Sorribes Tormo, and a flawless exhibition of controlled aggression in the final against Liudmila Samsonova, bodes well for Cancún, where the combination of swirling wind and a hastily-laid playing surface that has allowed scant practice time will be challenging for all the players. The need for Swiatek to tailor her game accordingly will be particularly acute given that she starts against Marketa Vondrousova, the wily Czech southpaw who outfoxed Jabeur at Wimbledon to become the first unseeded women’s champion in history. Not given to complacency, the French Open champion will be taking nothing for granted.

“You can always say the first two seeds are going to be the favourites, or the first seed,” said Swiatek, who has also been drawn alongside Gauff and Jabeur in Chetumal Group. “But honestly, so many things can happen this week. Overall, in any tennis tournament, I stopped thinking that way. I think any one of us can win this tournament. 

“I felt like [last year, when Swiatek compiled a 37-match winning streak and won Roland Garros and the US Open] was just kind of ridiculous, because people got used to me winning. It’s not like it’s going to happen all the time. So I think this season was kind of more normal, I would say, like most of the seasons we play, for even the top players.  

“The main thing I want to avoid is forgetting that this was also a good season and I still won some great tournaments. 

“Expectations from the outside, it was the thing that really sometimes stopped me this season. I’m going to work on not letting it stop me this time.”

In truth, little has stopped the 22-year-old this season. While Sabalenka has been the dominant force at the majors – although not in Paris, where Swiatek was crowned champion for the third time in four years – the Pole has won five titles and 63 matches, more than any of her peers. Samsonova, against whom Swiatek did not make a single unforced error in the Beijing final, caused quite a stir when she recently branded her rival “the real No 1”, yet it was easy to see what the Russian meant. Sabalenka’s superior grand slam record this season unquestionably makes her the rightful No 1 and yet, in the hard currency of trophies and victories, Swiatek has been the more successful player. 

If Sabalenka is to alter that skewed perception, she will need to combine a strong showing in Bacalar Group with a repeat of last year’s run to the final. Should she collect two wins from a group that includes Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Sakkari and then advance to the final, Swiatek will be powerless to stop her. Anything less, and the Pole will be in charge of her own destiny, although she would still probably need to win the title with an unblemished group record.

Yet, if the tournament unfolds along similar lines to recent editions, the battle for No 1 could yet be overshadowed. Should range and adaptability prove the determining factors, Jabeur and Vondrousova could emerge as disruptors-in-chief. With no previous winners in the field, either woman would be a fitting addition to a roster of left-field champions that includes Caroline Wozniacki, Elina Svitolina, Garbiñe Muguruza and Caroline Garcia. 

Victory for Jabeur would mark a fairy-tale conclusion to a chequered season that has included knee surgery and a heart-breaking defeat in the Wimbledon final for the second successive year. Neither a first French Open quarter-final nor title wins in Charleston and Ningbo – the latter her first on hard courts – have brought solace in the face of a loss that the Tunisian has described as the most painful of her career. If there has been an upside, it is that she has acquired a knack of adjusting to circumstance. 

“I learned to just adapt to everything,” said Jabeur, who opens against Gauff on Monday. “As a tennis player, I always try to adapt and not complain about a lot of things. Hopefully it will help me to play better. Definitely I will figure out how to play my best tennis in the wind.”

Vondrousova, whose quarter-final run at the US Open underlined how impressively she has adapted to life as a grand slam winner, will likewise look to make the most of her guile and tactical intelligence.

“I’m more crafty,” said the 24-year-old. “I don’t have as much power as other girls, maybe. I feel like I’m the smallest here, too. It’s a bit tough sometimes.  

“Since I was small, I was always the smallest, so I had to find ways. I feel like my lefty [style] is also a bit annoying for other players. That’s what I’m trying to do, just to be annoying.”

Gauff, meanwhile, is hopeful that an upbringing in the swirling winds of Delray Beach, Florida will work to her advantage as she seeks to reproduce the winning blend of defence and attack that earned her the US Open title.

“I will need to adjust because the wind is quite heavy,” said the 19-year-old, who lost all through of her group matches in straight sets last year in Fort Worth. “For the past few days, when I’ve been trying to practice here, it’s been really tough.

“For sure, I’m going to stick to my game. I’m going to try to still play aggressive. Of course, the serve is a weapon, so I’ll try to do my best to adjust.”

With Swiatek the favourite, adjustment is likely to be the watchword in Chetumal Group, potentially giving Jabeur or Vondrousova a slight edge. Conversely, Bacalar Group will be shaped by a collision of irresistible forces, in the shape of Sabalenka and Rybakina, and immovable objects, in the form of Pegula and Sakkari. A quarter-final loss to Rybakina in Beijing notwithstanding, a Sabalenka wobble would be a major surprise. The wider outlook is harder to predict. Pegula has little to lose after drawing a blank on her debut in Fort Worth last year, while Rybakina, the fourth seed and former Wimbledon champion, has admitted to struggling with the wind in practice. 

That leaves Sakkari, in as an alternate following the withdrawal of Karolina Muchova with a wrist injury, as a potential fly in the ointment for the trio of top-five players with whom she finds herself bracketed. A semi-finalist in each of her two previous appearances at the finals, the Greek world No 9 not only has the pedigree to get out of the group but also has a deep affinity for the host country, which she has come to see as a home for home. That feelgood factor, underlined by last month’s title win in Guadalajara, her first at WTA 1000 level, deepens the suspicion that Sakkari, effectively playing with house money, could emerge as the surprise package of the group.

“I just feel like the crowd loves me here, and I love them too,” said Sakkari. “I’ve said it many times: there’s a special connection. This week is like a celebration for me. I’m grateful to be here, to be competing again in the finals, because three times in a row is I think a great achievement.  

“I’m just going to go out there and enjoy. It would be amazing to win the whole thing, that’s my ultimate goal, of course, but I don’t want to think of winning or losing. I just want to feel like, ‘You know what, I was given that great opportunity’ – and make the most out of it.”

Semi-finals: Swiatek to defeat Sakkari; Jabeur to defeat Sabalenka.

Final: Swiatek to beat Jabeur.

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At that point, the Czech had no idea if she would ever again recapture the form that propelled her to the French Open final in 2019 and won her an Olympic silver medal two years later in Tokyo. As her ranking plummeted, that uncertainty was apparently shared by her clothing sponsor, who ended a four-year association with Vondrousova when her contract expired at the end of last year.

Suffice to say that somewhere in Orgeon, a Nike executive will be clearing their desk tonight after Vondrousova, unseeded and unsponsored, defeated Ons Jabeur in straight sets to become the lowest-ranked Wimbledon champion in history.

The world No 42, who had previously won just two main draw matches on grass in her life, completed a fairy-tale run at the All England Club with a 6-4, 6-4 win over last year’s finalist Ons Jabeur, the Tunisian sixth seed. It was a victory so improbable that even Vondrousova struggled to take it in.

“I think it was the most impossible grand slam for me to win, so I didn’t even think of it,” said Vondrousova, the first unseeded women’s champion since the system was introduced in 1924. “When we came, I was just like, ‘Try to win a couple of matches.’ Now this happened. It’s crazy.

“I had a cast last year at this time. It was impossible. I was watching my best friend here playing qualies. I was a tourist here.  

“When I was coming back, I didn’t know what’s going to happen, if I can play at this level again. I mean, this seems impossible. On grass, I didn’t play well before.”

The unexpected nature of Vondrousova’s presence in the final undoubtedly worked in her favour. In the final set of her quarter-final win over Jessica Pegula, the 24-year-old was a point away from falling 5-1 behind. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she went about her business against Jabeur like a woman playing with house money. Vondrousova recovered from 3-1 down in both sets and showed no hint of nerves until the final game, where she went 40-0 up only to double-fault on her first championship point. Moments later, the Czech lunged to stab away a final backhand volley and then collapsed to the grass on her back. 

“I’m just so happy that I could stay focused,” said Vondrousova, who defeated Elina Svitolina, another crowd favourite, in the semi-finals. “It’s very tough. People are cheering and everything. When it was 40-0, I couldn’t breathe. 

“I just was thinking to myself, ‘Just be over.’ I was like crazy nervous. It was such a relief when I put the match point in.”

Vondrousova’s elation was Jabeur’s heartbreak. The 28-year-old began the afternoon hoping to become the first Arab and African woman to win a major singles title. She ended it contemplating the devastation of a third straight defeat in a grand slam showpiece, having previously reached last year’s Wimbledon and US Open finals. 

Twice a break up in the first set and once in the second, Jabeur struggled to cope with both the magnitude of the moment and Vondrousova’s rhythm-disrupting array of southpaw spins and changes of pace. Jabeur held points to win each of the first five games, but for every step forward she took there were two steps back. In the third game, she relinquished an early break with a pair of unforced errors; after missing a short ball at the start of the fourth, she betrayed the depth of her anxiety by whacking her thigh in fury.

While the strength of that reaction felt premature at such an early stage, it was hardly surprising that Jabeur’s emotions were running at a high pitch. Ranked 36 places above her opponent and significantly more accomplished on grass, where she has won two of her four titles, Jabeur was the clear favourite. She has made no secret of her ambition to win the tournament, and in defeating four former major winners on her way to the final, she appeared to have done the hardest part. 

After defeating Elena Rybakina, the defending champion, and Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, in the previous two rounds, her progress to the title round was accompanied by a sense of destiny. In a sense, though, those wins were part of the problem. After absorbing pace against two of the game’s biggest hitters, Jabeur faced the entirely different challenge of generating it. That dichotomy lay at the heart of her 31 unforced errors.

“I believe that it was a completely different match from the last three that I had,” said Jabeur, who also saw off Bianca Andreescu and Petra Kvitova in earlier rounds. “So maybe adapting to her rhythm was very difficult for me. Plus, the pressure and the stress of the final.  

“I didn’t think she made a lot of mistakes. I thought she served good. I think she played maybe a perfect final.”

That was true enough, yet Vondrousova’s excellence was also magnified by Jabeur’s inability to find her usual fluency. From 4-2 up in the opener, the Tunisian won just two more points in the first set, a wretched sequence that left her battling history as well as Vondrousova. For all the resilience Jabeur showed to fight back against Rybakina and Sabalenka, the last woman to recover from a set down in the final three rounds of a major was Helen Wills Moody at the 1925 US Open. Briefly, it looked as though she might do it. But after a three-game flourish in which she looked more like her true self, Jabeur crumbled again, losing five of the last six games. She was consoled by the Princess of Wales in the aftermath.

Vondrousova’s victory continues a rich tradition of Czech success at the tournament, where past champions include Martina Navratilova, Jana Novotna and Petra Kvitova. The latest triumph was watched by both Navratilova, who is now an American citizen, and Jan Kodes, winner of the men’s title 50 years ago and an animated presence in Vondrousova’s box. Also seated among her team was Helena Sukova, five times a singles quarter-finalist at the All England Club and the winner of seven doubles titles. 

Another important presence for Vondrousova was her husband of eight years, Stepan Simek, who flew in to attend the final after abandoning cat-sitting duties at the couple’s home in Prague. It was Simek that she called during a crucial rain delay against Pegula while the roof was closed (as it was here – a factor that, as she acknowledged, probably worked to her advantage), later crediting his calm words of encouragement for her victory. 

“I think when I came to the box, he cried,” said Vondrousova. “I saw him after, and he cried a lot. I think that’s the first emotion I saw from him over the eight years.”

The contrasting emotions of the occasion were reflected in the two camps either side of match point. While Vondrousova’s younger sister wept as the champion closed in on victory, Jabeur’s husband and trainer, Karim Kamoun, was no more able than his wife to disguise his devastation in the aftermath.

“I think this is the most painful loss of my career,” said Jabeur, through a veil of tears, in her on-court interview. “It’s going to a tough day today for me, but I’m not going to give up. I’m going to come back stronger and win a grand slam medal. 

“It was an amazing tournament for me, I wish I could have continued to the end. I want to thank my team for always believing in me and we’re going to make it one day, I promise you. 

“It’s been a tough journey, but that’s tennis. I promise I’ll come back one day and win this tournament.”

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For Marketa Vondrousova, merely to be playing tennis at all represents a triumph. At the age of 24, the gifted Czech southpaw has spent almost as much time in the rehabilitation room as she has on court. She has overcome long-term injury on three occasions, most recently in May last year, when she underwent surgery on her left wrist for the second time in four years.

A former junior world No 1 who was still a teenager when she reached her first grand slam final four years ago at Roland Garros, Vondrousova began this season uncertain that she would ever again recapture the form that once carried her to No 14 in the world. There was, therefore, undeniable romance in the 6-3, 6-3 victory over Elina Svitolina that earned the world No 42 a place in Saturday’s Wimbledon final, the first unseeded player to achieve that distinction in the open era.

“After everything I’ve been through, two surgeries, it’s not always easy to come back,” said Vondrousova. “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.”

Yet for Svitolina, this was the cruellest of defeats. The war in her native Ukraine has infused the 28-year-old with a newfound sense of mission. After her dramatic quarter-final win over Iga Swiatek, the former world No 3 spoke movingly of how seeing videos of children following her matches in her war-torn homeland made her heart “melt”. Her unwavering support for her country, both on and off the court, has drawn universal admiration.

Svitolina’s place in the public affections has been cemented further by her remarkable achievements in the three months since she returned from maternity leave, which include a first title in almost two years in Strasbourg and a quarter-final run at Roland Garros. No champion would have been more popular.

But Svitolina, shouldering the hopes of a people for whom any scintilla of joy is precious at this time, was unable to reproduce the form that has carried her past four grand slam champions over the past 11 days. Hard though they tried, her Centre Court supporters were unable to lift her to victory. An error-strewn performance left the wild card overwrought with emotion.

“I got a lot of messages from different people, it’s unbelievable that they been there with me all the way,” said Svitolina, fighting back tears. “Hopefully they continue.

“For sure it’s a big motivation, but [also] it’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of tension. I try to balance it as much as I can.  

“Sometimes it gets maybe too much. But I don’t want to take it as an excuse that I lost today. I try to take it as a motivation for me. I just hope that Ukrainian people continue supporting me.”

That much is not in doubt. Determination was etched in Svitolina’s features throughout, but for all her redoubtable tenacity and fighting spirit, she could find no answer to Vondrousova’s extraordinary range and variety. The Czech, who combines a whippy forehand with a knifed sliced backhand, a difficult lefty serve and a drop shot that must surely be the envy of every woman on tour save Ons Jabeur, rarely gave Svitolina the same ball twice. Her rhythm-disrupting changes of pace, spin and trajectory drew 24 unforced errors from the Ukrainian while limiting her to a paltry nine winners.

After a sequence of three consecutive breaks, Vondrousova found herself in control of the first set at 4-3. That began a run of seven consecutive games for the Czech, whose confidence flowed as freely as her movement. One audacious running forehand, sliced viciously beyond the incoming Svitolina as she served to stay in the opener, drew a broad grin from Vondrousova. Another was struck with such sweet venom that Jan Kodes, the Czech men’s champion of 50 years ago, rose to his feet to applaud from his vantage point in the royal box.

Yet even as Vondrousova stood within two games of the final at a set and 4-0 to the good, it felt almost as though Svitolina had yet to start. A key element in the outstanding run that took her past Venus Williams, Sofia Kenin, Victoria Azarenka and Swiatek, with their combined tally of 14 majors, was a newfound readiness to take on her shots rather than rely on her skills as a counter-puncher. Only now, with the contest seemingly beyond her, did Svitolina begin to show that dimension of her game, breaking twice to get back on serve. It was not to last, Vondrousova holding her nerve to stem the tide and see out a famous victory.

“I should have found a better way to deal with Marketa’s game style,” said Svitolina. “She’s a very tricky opponent. She gets lots of balls back.

“I tried to fight back and just give everything out there, even though I didn’t play my best.”

As for Vondrousova, she will now face Jabeur, the sixth seed, who scored a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3 upset over Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion and world No 2. Vondrousova has played the Tunisian twice this year, winning both times.

“I feel like we’re the same in some things,” said Vondrousova. “We’re playing dropshots. We’re playing slice.”

Another area of common ground is that, on Saturday afternoon, one of them will become a grand slam champion for the first time. Once again, a fairy tale is guaranteed.

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Nine months after giving birth to her daughter Skaï, and just three months after returning to the tour, Svitolina scored the biggest upset of the tournament so far, defeating Iga Swiatek, the top seed, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 on an afternoon drenched with drama and emotion.

It was one of the most significant victories of Svitolina’s career, matching her best previous performances at the majors, which came when she reached the last four of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2019. Those runs came in very different circumstances. The 28-year-old former world No 3 was still a top-10 player back then, not a wildcard ranked 76th. There was peace in Odesa, the port city in southern Ukraine where she was born, and where her 85-year-old grandmother – with whom she speaks almost daily – still lives. As for marriage and motherhood, they were yet to come, her relationship with fellow player Gaël Monfils still in its early days.

 “I think war made me mentally stronger,” said Svitolina, reflecting on the altered landscape of her life. “Mentally I don’t take difficult situations as like a disaster, you know? There are worse things in life. I’m just calmer.  

“I think also, because I just started to play again, I have different pressures. Of course, I want to win. I have this motivation, like huge motivation, to come back to the top. But I think having a child, and war, made me a different person. I look at things a bit differently.”

She plays differently, too, as Swiatek discovered. Traditionally a counter-puncher who relies principally on her defensive skills and athleticism, Svitolina has added a more aggressive edge to her game since her comeback, most notably an increased willingness to take on a forehand that can be lethally effective. That weapon carried her to the French Open quarter-finals last month and served her well at the key moments here, not least during an astonishing first-set sequence in which she won 20 out of 22 points to cancel out a 5-3 lead for the Polish world No 1. 

“I think she played with more freedom and more guts,” said Swiatek, who broke twice in the early stages without ever managing to break away. 

“Sometimes she really just let go of her hand and she played really, really fast. I don’t know if she played like that before.

“She was changing rhythm so much in terms of playing these faster shots sometimes.”

Visibly stressed in the latter stages of the opening set, Swiatek initially appeared to benefit from a timely rain delay. The Pole sought the advice of her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, while the roof was being closed, and also had a lengthy discussion with her mental coach, Daria Abramowicz. The 22-year-old returned to the fray a calmer figure, and once again seized an early break, capitalising on some sloppy play from Svitolina. 

History was to repeat itself, though, a combination of Svitolina’s enterprise and the Pole’s errors cancelling out the advantage, and the eventually needed all her resilience to cancel out a 4-1 deficit in the second-set tiebreak.

In the previous round, Swiatek performed a similar act of escapology late in the second set against Belinda Bencic, saving two match points. That was enough to see her home on that occasion, but there was no let-down from Svitolina, who stuck doggedly to her task all afternoon, never allowing Swiatek to establish the momentum on which she thrives. Some heavy returning from the Ukrainian in the third game of the decider gave her the platform for a break, and Swiatek’s mistakes did the rest. There would be no way back for the French and US Open champion, who finished the contest with a whopping 41 unforced errors.

“I didn’t feel today like I could play my best game,” said Swiatek. “But I gave my all in everything that I could do.

“It’s hard for me to point to one thing that failed exactly. I think Elina was just overall playing aggressively and giving it all in every shot.

“For sure I played some mistakes that I shouldn’t do. That’s why I lost. But she also put pressure on me.”

Yet nobody has felt more pressure at these championships than Svitolina, who knows that every win is also a small victory for her country. In Venus Williams, Sofia Kenin, Victoria Azarenka and Swiatek, she has beaten a quartet of grand slam champions, only the fourth player in the open era to achieve that distinction. Svitolina is doing all she can to raise funds and awareness for her embattled country off the court, but she also understands the value of whatever joy she can bring on it.

“I know that lots of people back in Ukraine are watching,” said Svitolina. “I’m happy I can bring a little happiness to their life. There were many videos on the internet where the kids are watching on their phones. This really makes my heart melt, seeing this. Just happy I could bring a little happiness to people of Ukraine.”

As for Swiatek, she leaves with a first Wimbledon quarter-final on her CV and a clear sense that she has made progress on her least favoured surface. Having previously struggled with her movement on grass, she has more closely resembled her usual dynamic self these past nine days. She has improved technically and tactically, serving with greater authority and showing a greater commitment to attack, and once she perfects the adjustments required to bring her forehand to bear with greater consistency, a title challenge will surely follow. For now, though, like just about everyone else, she will be cheering for Svitolina.

“I’ll root for her, especially because we like each other as people,” said Swiatek, whose unwavering support for Ukraine since the Russian invasion began has earned universal respect, not least from Svitolina, with whom she shared a touching embrace at the end. 

“I told her at the net that I hope she wins this tournament. You know how it is in tennis: it’s tough to win a grand slam. I know that for sure she wants it really bad.”

The same could be said for Jessica Pegula, the fourth seed, whose sixth grand slam quarter-final went the way of the previous five as she was undone 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 by Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. 

Things began promisingly for Pegula when she claimed an early break, but slowly the American became entangled in here 24-year-old opponent’s rhythm-disrupting web of southpaw spins and drop shots. Having dropped the opening set, however, Pegula began to make headway, finding her range from the baseline and volleying with a smoothness and assurance befitting of a woman ranked third in the world in doubles.

By the time rain arrived, forcing a short delay while the roof was closed, Pegula was a break up in the decider and seemingly on course for a first major semi-final. But although she came within two points of a 5-1 lead, Vondrousova’s aggression down the stretch proved decisive.

“It sucks to lose that way, having the lead in the third,” said Pegula, who agreed with Vondrousova’s observation that the delay came at a perfect moment for the Czech.

“It definitely changed momentum, because I totally had the momentum going to serve that 4-1 game. I still had chances with the roof closed. She played solid. She literally didn’t miss for, like, the next five games.”

Vondrousova, who reached the French Open final four years ago but has been plagued by injury, revealed afterwards that a phone call to her husband during the delay helped to inspire her emotional victory.

“He just said, ‘Try to fight. You are playing good. You are playing a great match,’” said Vondrousova, the world No 42, who will now face Svitolina for a place in the final. 

“After the match point, I couldn’t believe it. We were playing [an] amazing match, she is a great player. I think everything just went on, and I just couldn’t hold the tears.”

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