Marketa Mops Up Both Titles
Pictured: Marketa Vondrousova with the Bob Kerr trophy after winning the Budgen Motors W100 Shrewsbury singles title. Picture: Richard Dawson Photography.
Marketa Vondrousova impressively won both the singles and doubles titles at The Shrewsbury Club's ITF World Tennis Tour event - with the tournament hailed a huge success. The Czech Republic star beat Eva Lys from Germany in the singles final before following it up by partnering Miriam Kolodziejova, another Czech player, to victory in the doubles final. A capacity crowd of more than 500 enjoyed Finals Day at the Budgen Motors W100 Shrewsbury tournament as Vondrousova, who reached the 2019 French Open final and was a silver medallist at last year’s Olympics, lifted two trophies.
Currently ranked 121 in the world, having been as high as 14, Vondrousova saved four set points in the opening set of the singles final against Lys, who recently won a W60 tournament in Slovakia and went into the final on a nine-match winning run. Vondrousova eventually completed a 7-5, 6-2 victory to be crowned W100 Shrewsbury champion in only the second tournament she has played since April.
Having had wrist surgery earlier this year, she made her return at a W80 tournament in France last week.
"I’m super happy,” said eighth seed Vondrousova. "I really enjoyed this week and I’m just very happy to be back competing and playing matches after such a long time.
"I played really tough matches this week, so I’m just happy to be back at my level.”
Reflecting on saving set points in the opening set, Vondrousova added: "It was very tough. Eva was playing pretty great and I was just trying to put every ball into the court and stay in the match and fight. I’m just really proud how I fought and how I played.”
Lys, 20, currently a career-high 126 in the world rankings enjoyed a fine week in Shropshire, knocking out three British players before also beating Croatian Ana Konjuh in the semi-finals.
"I’m very proud I made it this far,” said Lys, after the final. "Every single match was such a good fight, so I'm just happy that I've played this tournament this well.”
Vondrousova then enjoyed that winning feeling once again later in the afternoon as she partnered Kolodziejova to victory in the doubles final. They got the better of Jessika Ponchet from France and Renata Voracova from the Czech Republic 7-6, 6-2.
Dave Courteen, The Shrewsbury Club’s managing director, highlighted the achievement of Vondrousova in winning both the singles and doubles titles.
“To win the singles and doubles means you've won a lot of matches throughout the week,” he said. “She’s been playing two matches a day in some cases.
"It’s a bit of a rarity for someone to be both a singles and doubles champion at the same event. It’s the first time it’s happened in an ITF tournament at The Shrewsbury Club and it just proves what a classy player she is.”
Reflecting on the success of the W100 Shrewsbury tournament, he added: “We are proud that we have been able to host such a high quality event in Shrewsbury that brings such a high level of tennis to the town.
"We are one of only 13 towns or cities across the world to host an ITF event of this stature, so for Shrewsbury to have done that is amazing. The quality of the tennis throughout the week has been wonderful.
“Thank you to the tournament sponsors and all the volunteers throughout the week as they are why these events happen, while The Shrewsbury Club team have worked so hard and done an amazing job."
Richard Joyner, the tournament director for the LTA, was delighted with the success of the prestigious event, which is part of the LTA’s enhanced Performance Competition Calendar.
He said: "This tournament is the culmination of a number of years building up to this.
"The occasion and the atmosphere today made it a special occasion. We shouldn’t underestimate how much players enjoy playing in an atmosphere with full stands and lots of noise.”