Ons Jabeur will meet Market Vondrousova in Saturday’s Wimbledon final after a hard-fought 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Aryna Sabalenka.
For Jabeur, it is a second Wimbledon final after losing out a year ago to Elena Rybakina, who she beat in Wednesday’s quarter-finals.
For Vondrousova, it is a second grand slam final and in stark contrast to a year ago where she was resigned to watching a friend of hers in the Wimbledon qualifiers while sporting a cast on her left wrist.
On her return from surgery, she beat Elina Svitolona 6-3, 6-3 in a match which lacked the drama of the later semi-final. Svitolina had been earmarked as the fairytale winner with an even more impressive comeback story nine months after giving birth to her daughter Skai, not to mention the backdrop of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Among those watching in the Royal Box was her country’s ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko on a day when Wimbledon announced it had donated more than £400,000 to the Ukraine relief fund.
Svitolina had played with a refreshing abandon in the earlier rounds, having overcome the mental demons of previously in her career, parenthood and war having made her realise there is infinitely more to life than tennis.
But she had also returned with a refined game, hitting three times as many aces as her last good Wimbledon run in 2019 and upping the speed of both her serves by 3 to 4mph.
Despite the overwhelming support of those inside Centre Court in what was a first Wimbledon semi-final featuring two unseeded players, hers instead was an uncharacteristically subdued performance.
Partly that was down to what was at stake but also the brilliance of Vondrousova whose array of shot making from groundstrokes and volleys, drop shots and chipped returns.
The second set disappeared from Svitolina’s grasp within half an hour and a fourth straight break of her serve saw her immediately fall behind in the second set and a fifth followed shortly after that, her body language suggesting she was increasingly beginning to admit defeat.
But just as Vondrousova had five opportunities to stretch to a 5-0 lead, the Svitolina fightback begun, ending seven straight lost games to win three of her own on the bounce.
Suddenly there was a skip back in her step, a relatively muted crowd showing their support as well as tightness finally in her opponent’s game. But any suggestion she might pull off a comeback to echo the one in the fourth round against Victoria Azarenka proved unmerited. Vondrousova broke again and served out the match.
The second semi-final was breathtaking between two evenly matched players with contrasting styles. There was the power game of Sabalenka, who hit the fastest serve of the tournament during the match at 121mph, and the finesse of Jabeur.
Victory would have been enough to enable Sabalenka, the first player into the semi-finals of the first three grand slams of the year since Serena Williams in 2016, to become world No1.
The result avoided an awkward moment for Wimbledon bosses who were facing the prospect of the Princes of Wales awarding the trophy on Saturday to a player in Sabalenka from Belarus, whose players were banned from competing at Wimbledon last year.
From the outset, Jabeur put pressure on the Sabalenka serve without ever breaking it as the set went to a tiebreak.
Jabeur moved into the ascendancy at 4-2 in the shoot-out thanks to a double fault by her opponent and a delightful forehand of her own creation. But she lost five of the next six points to somehow fall behind.
In a bid to force a breakdown of the Sabalenka serve, to which she has been prone in her career, Jabeur moved forward as receiver to rush her rival. But instead it was Jabeur who was rushed as she faced only her second break point of the match and was promptly broken to love with the capitulation of a double fault to fall 2-3 behind.
She tried to battle her way back level and, in a thrilling rally in game eight, had a chance to earn another break point only to be outdone by Sabalenka who raised an arm a loft as if in celebration at the impending win.
It didn’t materialise as the Tunisian broke in the last game of the set to force a decider. Going into it, she had won seven of nine Wimbledon deciding sets.
With Sabalenka beginning to lose her rag and be more wayward on her shots – hitting 14 unforced errors to the two of Jabeur in the final set - it was Jabeur who got the sole break in game six and maintained the lead to the finish.
