Marketa Vondrousova shares sad personal news

Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 Wimbledon champion, has endured a series of hardships off-the-court in 2024. Recall that Vondrousova was beaming with pride in London last summer as her husband Stepan Simek arrived for the finals to watch her win her maiden Grand Slam.

World No. 9 and winner of two WTA titles, Vondrousova, recently admitted that she and Simek have separated and are in the process of finalizing a divorce. It appears that Simek also took the beloved family cat who he had to get pet care for before joining Vondrouosva in London last summer.

The couple married in the summer of 2022 and were together eight years in total. It is an amicable separation and divorce with total agreement on everything. Vondrousova added it was a mutual decision to dissolve the marriage because marriage "wasn't what we both imagined." To be fair, marriage to a professional tennis player has to be especially difficult because he or she is on the road nearly 11 months out of the year.

Divorce is not the only issue Vondrouosva is dealing with

Vondrousova is also grieving the loss of her grandfather. She withdrew from Indian Wells so that she could go home and be with him. He has since passed away which understandably has left a hole in her heart.

Hopefully Vondrousova recuperates mentally for the peak season ahead. She is the defending Wimbledon champion but had her first Grand Slam success as a 2019 finalist at the French Open. She enjoys the clay so it will be interesting to see how well she competes this year at Roland Garros.

Vondrousova is an Olympic silver medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. With the Olympics set at Roland Garros, she will be making a lot of quick adjustments to compete this summer in Roland Garros for the French Open in May, on the grass at Wimbledon in July defending her title, and back on the clay at Roland Garros in August for the Paris Olympics.

In the near term, Vondrousova is competing in singles and doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open through May 5. She has an opening round bye in singles and will not be in action until the Round of 64. In doubles, she is teaming with British top-ranked player Katie Boulter.

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