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Ons Jabeur showed that sometimes it’s better to float like a butterfly than sting like a bee as her masterful technical prowess overcame the savage blow of Aryna Sabalenka to reach her second Wimbledon final with a 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3 victory on Thursday.
Jabeur, who was defeated in last year’s final, seemed destined to suffer more heartbreak on Center Court when she lost the first set, but her sensitive technique and clever angles dampened the relentless strength of Belarusian Sabalenka.
The win set up a final between sixth seed Tunisia and unseeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova, the former French Open finalist who ended the hopes of Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina earlier on Thursday.
Jabeur, who also finished as runner-up at the US Open last year, lost a tense first-set tiebreak and fell 4-2 in the second, but came back with two breaks to level the contest.
Then she took a decisive break to lead 4-2 in the third set and while the Tunisian had four match points, she crossed the finish line with a header.
Fondros ends Svitolina’s run to reach the Wimbledon final
Marketa Vondrousova showed there was no room for any outpouring of emotions as she ended the stellar run of new mother Elina Svitolina with a 6-3 6-3 victory to reach her first Wimbledon final on Thursday.
In the lead-up to her first Wimbledon women’s semi-final involving unseeded players, Svitolina was described by Vondrousova as “incredible”, “amazing”, a “fighter” and a “superwoman” as she reached the semi-finals of the Slams. Months after the birth of her daughter, Skye.
The Ukrainian player has become a crowd favorite at the All England Club after producing a fearless brand of tennis to send four Grand Slam champions out of this year’s tournament.
But on Thursday, no matter how much the crowd tried to lift her up with cries of “We love you to us,” Svitolina seemed saddled with the expectation of giving her war-torn country “a little happiness” and froze on the biggest stage tennis has to offer.
The winning forehand ball gave Vondrousova the break to take a 3–2 lead, and although she gave up serve in the next game with a few unforced errors, including a double fault, she came forward again in the next game.
From now on, Svitolina was left screaming, screaming and shrieking in exasperation over and over as Vondrousova thwarted her with her swinging left hand serve to win seven matches on the trot.
Just when it looked like Vondrousova was going to whitewash her in the second set as the Czech held on to take a 5-0 lead, Svitolina came out swinging and broke her opponent not once but twice.
But Svitolina’s respite was fleeting as Vondrousova held back all the cries of support thrown her way to seal her place in the final when her opponent held serve long on match point.
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