No.6 seed Ons Jabeur rallied for a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 win over No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court to book a place in her third career Grand Slam final and second straight at the Wimbledon, here on Thursday.
Ons Jabeur (photo :IANS)
No.6 seed Ons Jabeur rallied for a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 win over No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court to book a place in her third career Grand Slam final and second straight at the Wimbledon, here on Thursday.
Jabeur is the first woman to reach back-to-back finals at Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2018-19. Williams lost both of those matches, and Jabeur will seek to avoid that fate when she faces Czech left-hander Marketa Vondrousova in Saturday’s final — the first unseeded Wimbledon women’s finalist in the Open Era.
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For the second straight match at Wimbledon — she also rallied from a set down in a rematch of the 2022 final to beat Elena Rybakina in the quarters — Jabeur came from behind for a three-set victory, and with wins over Rybakina, Sabalenka and Petra Kvitova this fortnight, Jabeur is the first woman to defeat three Top 10 players at Wimbledon since Williams in 2012.
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On the other hand, Vondrousova made a triumphant trip into her second career Grand Slam final with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Elina Svitolina in the Wimbledon semifinals.
In the all-unseeded affair, Czech lefty Vondrousova took 1 hour and 15 minutes to defeat Ukraine’s Svitolina, who was playing only her second Grand Slam event since her return from maternity leave in April.
The 24-year old Vondrousova had to fend off a second-set comeback by Svitolina to prevail and level their head-to-head at three wins apiece. Svitolina rebounded from 4-0 to 4-3 before Vondrousova regrouped to take the final two games of the match.
Both finalists — Vondrousova and Jabeur — are tied 3-3 in their overall head-to-head, but Vondrousova has beaten Jabeur in both of their meetings this year, at the Australian Open and Indian Wells.
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