Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur moved into a semi-final showdown at Wimbledon on Wednesday following wins over Madison Keys and Elena Rybakina respectively.
Sabalenka, who reached the last four at Wimbledon in 2021, wrapped up proceedings against the 25th seed 6-2, 6-4 in 87 minutes on Court 1.
“It really feels amazing to be back in the semifinals," said the 25-year-old Belarusian. "I can’t wait to play in my second semi-final at Wimbledon.”
Jabeur, the sixth seed, avenged her defeat in last year's final with a gutsy performance against the third seed.
The 28-year-old Tunisian served for the first set at 6-5 up and made her way to set point. But she fluffed the chance as Rybakina broke back to level at 6-6. Rybakina took the tiebreak seven points to five.
Surge
Jabeur edged the second set 6-4 and she ran away with the decider deploying her usual arsenal of drop shots, slices and spins as well as raw power - the highlight of which were three consecutive backhands down the line to pin Rybakina back and ultimately punish her to claim the double break and a 5-1 lead.
"If you try to play easy with her, it's not going to work," said Jabeur. "I wish we could exchange this match with the final last year."
Of her semi-final clash with Sabalenka -who has won three of their four encounters - Jabeur said: "I saw she won quickly so I wasn't happy about that. It's going to be very fast against her and it will be a challenge. She has been playing well this year."
An understatement. It will be Sabalenka's third consecutive appearance in the last four at a Grand Slam tournament this year.
In January, she went on to claim the Australian Open and in Paris she fluffed a match point on her way to a loss against Karolina Muchova.
"Ons is a great player," said Sabalenka. "We always had tough battles against each other, very close matches. I'm really looking forward for this great battle."
