Ons Jabeur was inches away from losing this match but the Tunisian rallied like never before to win this Wimbledon epic in three sets against Aryna Sabalenka.
Ons Jabeur has a pretty big dream, and it's to become the first African and Arab woman to win a Grand Slam. She's been in two finals so far, losing in last year's Wimbledon final and also last year's US Open final. Perhaps this is the year; it certainly looks like that after this incredible turnaround.
Sabalenka entered this match as the favourite and for very good reasons. The Belarusian has been one of the best players on the WTA Tour this year. After winning the Australian Open earlier, she narrowly missed out on the Roland Garros final throwing away a certain victory in the semi-final against Karolina Muchova.
She arrived in London ready to win the event and possibly become world number one but ultimately she's going to leave empty-handed in both regards after throwing away another certain victory. The first set was interesting, certainly one Jabeur shouldn't have lost.
Jabeur played spectacularly hitting the ball as well as it's possible while limiting her errors. Sabalenka herself had plenty of winners but she overhit quite a few times though that aggression ultimately proved decisive in the tiebreak. Jabeur faced only one break point and saved it while Sabalenka saved three and all three proved crucial.
We ended up in a tiebreak, one which Sabalenka ultimately won 7-5, and being willing to risk proved crucial. She had four winners more than Jabeur but also 16 unforced errors. Some of them almost cost her the set, but every single winner ultimately proved crucial in her winning the set.
The second one saw Sabalenka slowly take advantage of the dip in confidence from Jabeur. She played about as well as she could in the first one and still lost, so it was only a matter of time before her level would drop, and it happened in the 5th game.
Sabalenka broke and took a 3-2 lead and was set to cruise from there. The only thing is that she didn't. Jabeur mounted an incredible comeback, first breaking back to make it 4-4 and then breaking Sabalenka once more to take the set 6-4.
Two things were crucial, Sabalenka becoming a bit nervous and Jabeur having tremendous luck at 4-4 when she wiggled out of a 0-30 situation. The 3rd point of that game was a net bounce that landed on the line for Jabeur and proved the difference between 0-40 and 15-30.
The final set opened well for both. We didn't see any trouble for either player though Sabalenka was starting to show some nerves slowly. She was under tremendous pressure at 3-2 in the final set and despite saving a few break points, the Tunisian ultimately broke her to take a 4-2 lead.
A confident service game gave her the 5-2 lead and finished things off quickly after that. The final score was 6-7(5) 6-4 6-3 for Jabeur, who finished with 3 aces, 27 winners, and 14 unforced errors. Just an incredible comeback win to set up a final meeting with Marketa Vondrousova.
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