WTA500 Berlin: Marketa Vondrousova vs Xinyu Wang final analysis
Often absent Vondrousova reminds everyone - yet again - of the menace she can be on a tennis court
The Berlin Tennis Open by Hylo was arguably the strongest WTA 500 of the season. Even after Qinwen Zheng’s late withdrawal, its star-studded field still included 8 of the world’s Top-10 and 13 of the Top-18. So it is safe to assume no one predicted a championship match between a player ranked outside the Top-100 and another one beginning the event in the qualifying draw and yet to reach a final on Tour.
Vondrousova’s #165 ranking at the start of the week was an obvious abnormality created by a never-ending injury saga. Instead of cementing her place among the world’s elite following a historic win at Wimbledon in 2023, the 25-year old Czech arrived in Berlin with only 21 Tour events played and a 32-24 match record since that glorious moment.
But the talented lefty demonstrated once again that she capable of producing [is forced to produce?!] results off little matchplay. After winning just 6 matches in the first 6 months of the season, she beat Madison Keys (WTA #8), Diana Shnaider (#12), Ons Jabeur (#54), world #1 Aryna Sabalenka — squaring their head-to-head at 4-4 — and Xinyu Wang (#48) over a 6-day period to clinch her third career singles title.
Despite the [trophyless] runner-up finish, Xinyu Wang enjoyed her most successful week on Tour ever. She upset #2 Coco Gauff in the second round for her best career victory by ranking, strung 4 consecutive triumphs over Top-20 opponents and finally got over the Last-4 hump — she had lost her first 6 Tour semifinals, all in straight-sets.
Given such poor record, some nerves were probably expected from Wang in her maiden title decider. But the 23-year old Chinese acquitted herself very well right from the start and went on to finish the final on top of every rallying metric.
Total rallies won: Vondrousova 61 / Wang 67
Baseline duels won: Vondrousova 43 / Wang 46
Baseline win %: Vondrousova 46% / Wang 49%
Net points win %: Vondrousova 55% / Wang 67%
Drop shot win %: Vondrousova 56% / Wang 89%
The most surprising stat was Wang’s 89% to 59% supremacy in win percentage on drop shot/drop volley attempts. With a near perfect 8-for-9 efficiency, the rookie finalist outfoxed the master disruptor!
→ Throughout the Berlin final, Wang exhibited soft hands and great touch around the net
📺 source: WTA Tv
Vondrousova took home the champion’s trophy because she made up for her rallying shortcomings with a splendid serving performance.
The Czech delivered 6 aces and accumulated a total of 32 serves that were not returned by Wang while the Chinese responded with just 20 unreturned serves (marked by red box, below).
While these are the overall numbers that explain the final outcome, the match had some interesting dynamics that we will now discuss in detail.
Set 1
Vondrousova’s early tactical option of hooking lefty crosscourt forehands to Wang’s backhand didn’t work out as well as she hoped.