Portugal Colonial - Game, set, cat: Vondrousova feline good at Wimbledon

The world number 42 beat Ukrainian wild card Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3 in the semi-finals on Thursday and will face last year's runner-up Ons Jabeur for the title.

Her husband, Stepan Simek, has been at home looking after Frankie the cat as she has powered through the draw, but now he is free to travel to the All England Club.

"He's coming tomorrow with my sister," she said. "We texted the cat sitter to come to our home. He's coming tomorrow."

This time last year the Czech player, 24, was in London -- but only to watch her friend after having surgery on a wrist injury.

"It was Miriam (Kolodziejova). We played doubles here also," she said. "We're best friends. She was playing qualies (qualification tournament) for the first time last year.

"With my sister, we went to see her in Roehampton, then we stayed for a week just to see London and stuff.

"I had a cast on. It was after the surgery."

She added: "We visited the London Eye, that kind of stuff. We went shopping. We went to see some nice restaurants also. But I think we did shopping like, I don't know, five times. It was kind of crazy."

Vondrousova was a beaten finalist at the 2019 French Open and won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but her career has been blighted by injuries.

Her multiple tattoos have been a talking point at this year's Wimbledon -- she even admits she does not know how many she has.

The Czech player said she had a bet with her coach that if she is successful at Wimbledon, he will also get a tattoo.

"If I win a Grand Slam, he's going to get one, so I hope I will," she said. "Yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens and what I'll do.

"For me, it's also art. I don't know, I just like it. I appreciate the people that do this."

L.Carrico--PC