Ons Jabeur and a Centre Court love affair after thrilling Wimbledon semi-final comeback
The Tunisian, a year on from losing in the final, was on the brink again before the crowd spurred her into life
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Your support makes all the difference.Oh, how a tennis match can swing. So silent earlier in the day as Elina Svitolina’s hopes collapsed in front of their eyes, the Centre Court crowd came alive as they looked to revive Ons Jabeur’s Wimbledon dream. And ultimately, all it took was one customary cackle.
The Tunisian, who once more has become the story of the SW19 fortnight, needed a spark out of nothing. Down – but not out – against world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka, last year’s finalist was the wrong side of a set and a break and staring down the barrel once more. But at deuce, Sabalenka serving at 4-3 up in the second set, Jabeur received her goblet of liquid luck.
Sabalenka, nonchalantly bouncing the ball between serves, lost control. The ball boy sprinted up to the side of the baseline and picked the ball up. Offered it to her. Threw it to her. The crowd chuckled, disrupting the Belarusian’s rhythm and throwing her ever so slightly off guard. A double fault followed, triggering a break point.
Then, a Sabalenka forehand slammed into the net, providing Jabeur with the route back into the match she so desperately craved. From then, she reeled off two more games on the trot to level the contest. Finger-raised, Marcus Rashford style, at her temple after a backhand return winner sealed the second set, there would be no stopping her path to consecutive finals at the All England Club, where she will once again go in as favourite against unseeded Czech player Marketa Vondrousova.
From the brink, scrapping in desperation, the woman with a continent on her shoulders found a way to haul herself over the line, beating Sabalenka 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3.
But the 15,000-capacity crowd played their part; Jabeur said as much straight afterwards. “Thank you to the crowd which kept me in the match really,” she said on-court, the conductor to her choir. “Thank you guys for cheering for me and believing in me. Maybe I’d have lost the match today but I’m glad I kept digging very deep and finding the strength.”
Into the final on Saturday once again. Quite how she got there was extraordinary. Early proceedings saw both players save a break point, with Sabalenka’s crushing backhand the standout stroke on show early on. In fact, it was a winner on that side which saw her eventually escape a tricky situation at 2-2, saving two break points and holding after four deuces.
While in Wednesday’s quarter-final against defending champion Elena Rybakina the focus was on Jabeur keeping her emotions in check, this time the spotlight was on Sabalenka. The world No 2, returning to Wimbledon after missing last year due to the ban on Russians and Belarusians, cannot resist an instinctive reaction when a point hasn’t gone her way. A shake of the head; a puff of the cheeks; a startled stare and roll of the eyes to her player box.
While there may not be a more powerful, obstructive force in women’s tennis at the moment – the firm reason she was, in many eyes, the clear favourite this Wimbledon fortnight – Sabalenka too often finds herself in battle with her own temperament, instead of the player on the opposite side of the net. Cajoling oneself to be more determined can sharply swing to a mindset of disbelief, much to her own disadvantage.
But here, Sabalenka was staying just above the pressure bubble. Enough, despite a few slippery moments on serve, to stay fully in tune in the moment. A tiebreak was a formality when it arrived after 12 holds of serve.
What was not so inevitable was the course of events when they first swapped ends, Jabeur leading 4-2, as Sabalenka rapidly reeled off four straight points. Just when it mattered most, the Tunisian’s coolness at the mightiest of moments was deserting her, signified by a slap on the thigh as a Hawk-Eye challenge narrowly went against her.
Inches in the call on the baseline. And so there were inches in the first set, as Sabalenka took the tiebreak 7-5 with her second set point.
In the first semi-final earlier in the day, with Vondrousova defeating Svitolina, there were nine breaks of serve in the contest lasting one hour and 15 minutes. Here, it took that duration for just one break, as Jabeur – in a befuddling lapse of concentration – was broken to love, with Sabalenka fully in the groove now.
But at 4-3, a twist. The twist. An extraordinary game, with a few extraordinary points. That double fault from Sabalenka, a netted forehand and from the depths of despair, a glimpse of hope for Jabeur.
An open door grasped? You bet. The Tunisian saved a break point in her next service game, letting out a roar of defiance as she fought with every last breath to keep her tournament alive.
To 30-30, with Sabalenka suddenly serving to stay in the set. A loose backhand wide from Sabalenka and a fierce backhand return down the line from Jabeur. A gigantic roar. Remarkably, we were all-square under the roof.
The momentum fully with Jabeur now, Sabalenka did her best to hang on in there. But she could only stave off her buoyed opponent – and crowd – for so long. A backhand sent long from the Belarusian, after a gruelling slice exchange at break point, 3-2 down, and Jabeur had the final set initiative.
By the end, Sabalenka looked incapable of contemplating what had unfolded. She saved one match point with an ace; a second with an unreturnable serve. She even held, forcing Jabeur to serve it out. But after letting 40-0 slip to 40-30, an ace out wide secured another shot at Wimbledon glory. Arms aloft, Jabeur will play for the Venus Rosewater Dish once again, 12 months on from her pain of pains.
Her revenge journey – beating Petra Kvitova, Rybakina and Sabalenka, all of whom she’d lost to previously at Wimbledon – now gives her a final shot at redemption. An elusive Grand Slam. And there are no prizes for guessing which way the crowd will be chanting come Saturday afternoon.
In the other women’s semi-final, Elina Svitolina’s remarkable run was ended by Marketa Vondrousova in straight-sets, 6-3 6-3.
Svitolina, the Ukrainian wild card who only returned to the tour three months ago after giving birth last year, had beaten World No 1 Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals but ran out of steam under the roof on Centre Court, with her wily, left-handed Czech opponent deserving of her spot in the final on Saturday, where like Jabeur she will also be targeting a first Grand Slam title.
On Friday, it is the turn of the four remaining men to take to the semi-final stage. Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic opens up against Italian star Jannik Sinner before world number one Carlos Alcaraz takes on third seed Daniil Medvedev.
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