Marketa Vondrousova showed there was no room for any gushing sentiment as she ended.
The remarkable run of new mum Elina Svitolina with a 6-3 6-3 victory to reach the Wimbledon final for the first time on Thursday.
In the run-up to a first Wimbledon women’s semi-final featuring two unseeded players, Vondrousova had described Svitolina as “incredible”, “amazing”, “a fighter” and “a super woman” for reaching the semis of a slam just nine months after giving birth to her daughter Skai.
The Ukrainian had become a firm crowd favourite at the All England Club after she produced a fearless brand of tennis to send four Grand Slam champions spinning out of this year’s tournament.
But on Thursday, no matter how much the crowd tried to lift her with cries of “We love you Elina”, Svitolina appeared to be weighed down with the expectation of giving her war-ravaged country “a little bit of happiness” and froze on the biggest stage tennis has to offer.