MARKETA VONDROUSOVA will face Ashleigh Barty in the French Open with a new Grand Slam champion set to be crowned.
While the Australian was ranked as the eighth best in the world going into the tournament, the Czech teenager is an unknown quantity to those outside of the tennis circles.
The Sokolov native was born June 28, 1999 – making his 19-years-old.
She first picked up a tennis racket at the age of four, playing with her father, before eventually moving to Prague to train.
Should she claim the French Open title, she will become the 13th youngest female player to lift a Grand Slam title – with the last teenager to win one being Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2004 US Open.
Ahead of the French Open, Vondrousova had only won one competition in WTA tournaments.
She claimed the Ladies Open Biel Bienne in Switzerland back in April 2017.
But this will be her third final this season, most recently losing out to Petra Martic in the Istanbul Cup.
In Grand Slams, this is the first time she has got past the fourth round in the singles section.
But the Czech star was a doubles semi-finalist at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Going into Roland Garros, she was ranked number 38 in the world – more surprisingly, Vondrousova is only third in the rankings for Czech Republic.
Vondrousova has gone on a magnificent run to reach the final of the French Open.
In the first two rounds, she eased past Wang Yafan and Anastasia Potapova.
Yet, the Czech teenager faced 28th Carla Suarez Navarro and world number 12 Anastasija Sevastova in the following matches – only to see both of without dropping a set.
Her Istanbul Cup conqueror Petra Martic was up in the quarter-finals and Vondrousova got her revenge with another straight sets win, before doing the same against Britain’s Johanna Konta to reach the final.
Should she go onto beat Barty in two sets, the 19-year-old will be the first Czech player to do so in men or women’s tennis.
