By Chima Azu
Tunisian Ons Jabeur advances to the final of the year’s Wimbledon coming from a set down to defeat Russian Aryna Sabalenka in three sets (6-7, 6-4, 6-3).
Jabeur’s win makes it a back-to-back Wimbledon final after losing to her quarter final opponent Rybakina in last year’s final. Just like her quarter final game, her win over Sabalenka is more like revenge after losing to the Russian in their last three meetings.
Both players held their serves all through in the first set to take the game into a tie-break which the Australian Open winner won (7-5). The match was gradually slipping away for the Tunisian in the second set as Sabalenka wnt 4-1 up; however Jabuer fought back to level the game at 4-4. She won the next two games to tie the set at 1-1.
Ons showed more mental toughness to wage off the hard hitting strokes from her opponent. She held on to all her serves and broke Aryna twice to win the match and progress into the final for the second year running.
Jabeur will be taking on Marketa Vondrousova for the trophy and will be hoping to go one step better than she did last year. Jabeur has played Vondrousova six times and it has been all square, but the latter came out tops the met at the Indian Wells. On paper Jabeur’s opponent in the final isn’t on the same level with the last two the Tunisian has played on her to the final and it seems this will be he maiden Grand Slam title.
