It’s between Ons Jabeur and Aryna Sabalenka in the second Wimbledon semifinal.
Jabeur-Sabalenka the second Wimbledon semifinal.
It will be between Ons Jabeur, world No. 6, and Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2, in the second Wimbledon women’s singles semifinal. On Center Court, the Tunisian took revenge on Russian-Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, number 3, who had defeated her in last year’s final, beating her by a score of 6-7 6-4 6-1, while the Belarusian on court number 1 swept the U.S. Madison Keys, current number 18 who was number 7 in 2016, 6-2 6-4.
The first set between Jabeur and Rybakina was hotly contested, the first to break being the defending champion in the fourth game, who, however, in turn surrendered the serve in the next game. The scene is repeated but on opposite sides in the 11th and 12th games: Jabeur makes the break and has a set point at 6-5 and serve but does not exploit it, it then goes to the tie-break, which is won by Rybakina 7-5 with decisive minibreak at 3-3 and closing the partial set at the third set point.
In the second set Jabeur does not exploit three break points in the second game, ditto Rybakina in the fifth, but on 4-4 the match takes its definite direction: Jabeur on 5-4 wins her opponent’s service game and set and then flies to 3-0 in the decisive partial, saves two break points on 3-1 and then breaks Rybakina again in the sixth game closing the match after one hour and 53 minutes of play.
An hour and 27 minutes, on the other hand, lasted the match between Keys and Sabalenka, in the first set she saves only one break point in the last game by twice snatching the serve from Keys in the first and fifth game. In the second set it is the American who goes ahead 4-2 but it is her only treble because here she loses the last four games of the match.
For Jabeur it is the third semifinal at a Slam, the other two including last year’s Wimbledon, while for Sabalenka it is the sixth, the second at Church Road, and of the previous five she has won only one, that of last year’s triumphant Australian Open. The record, on the other hand, says well for Sabalenka, who has won three out of four, including the 2021 quarterfinal on London grass.
