LONDON — Marketa Vondrousova became the first unseeded player in the Open era to reach the Wimbledon final on Thursday with a dominant 6-3, 6-3 victory over Elina Svitolina. But her husband, Stepan Simek, wasn’t there to cheer her on. Nor has he been for any of her matches throughout the fortnight.
Instead, Simek has been watching from their home in Prague. And while some tennis players are superstitious about having their partners in attendance, and others, like Svitolina, have their partner stay at home for child care reasons, there was an entirely different reason for Simek’s absence.
“He has to work. He has to take care of our cat. He has to stay home,” Vondrousova explained matter-of-factly on Tuesday.
That’s right. While Vondrousova, 24, is having one of the best major runs of her career, Simek has been on catsitting duty for their sphynx named Frankie.
However, after her win Thursday, Vondrousova told reporters they had texted their catsitter and Simek would be arriving to London on Friday to watch her play in Saturday’s final against Ons Jabeur. It is the second major final of Vondrousova’s career and first at Wimbledon. She lost to Ashleigh Barty in the 2019 French Open championship match.
No word on if Frankie will be watching on television with the catsitter.