It will be a story of firsts, Saturday in the women’s final of Wimbledon: the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the first African to play for the title of a Grand Slam tournament, will face Elena Rybakina, the first Kazakh representative to do so.
Thursday, without an ounce of pity, Jabeur beat her friend Tatjana Maria 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the semi-finals.
“It’s a dream come true after years of hard work and sacrifice. I am happy that all of this is finally paying off and that I can play one more match,” said the 27-year-old Tunisian.
“She owes me a barbecue for all the races she forced me to do on the court”, launched Jabeur about Maria, her “barbecue partner”, as she had presented on Tuesday.
The two players also gave each other a long hug at the net at the end of the meeting.
“I wanted to share this moment with her because she is truly an inspiration to so many people, including me,” explained the world number 2 in reference to the successful performance by Maria (103rd). The 34-year-old German, mother of two little girls, the last of whom was born less than a year ago, had never passed the third round of a Major.
“Proud Tunisian Woman”
But Jabeur is a model herself. The first player from the Arab world to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2020, she climbed two more steps this year at Wimbledon.
“I am a proud Tunisian woman today. I know that in Tunisia it must be madness right now. I just try to be as much of an inspiration as possible, I want to see more Arab and African players on the circuit,” she said before leaving Center Court.
He only has one match left for the dream to become a complete reality.
And this match will be against Rybakina (23rd) who, for her second participation, rose to the final by dismissing the 2019 winner Simona Halep (18th) 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday.
“I don’t know how to describe how I feel, it was really good, I was well prepared mentally, I did everything possible and I had an incredible match,” commented the 23-year-old, whose the best Grand Slam result was a quarter-final at Roland Garros in 2021.
Muscovite
Rybakina, who was born in Moscow, grew up there and lives there, but plays under the flag of Kazakhstan, has been talking about her power since the start of the tournament.
Before the semi-final, she had hit 122 winners in five games, including 44 aces, and won 85% of her service games.
Halep knew it, but she couldn’t do anything and her defense was swept away by all five aces – including one at 120 mph to lead 5-3 and be one game away – and 21 shot winners from Rybakina .
The only game won by Halep on opposing service, was offered to her on a plateau by the Kazakh who chained four unforced errors to allow the Romanian to come back to 2-2 in the second set. Halep, who felt after his quarter-final that he had returned to his best level, the one that had allowed him to reach world number 1 and win Roland-Garros in 2018 a year before Wimbledon, never had another break point than those in this game.
Nevertheless, Rybakina is suspicious of Jabeur. “She’s a great player, very difficult to play and it won’t be easy to counter her drop shots and volleys,” predicted the Kazakh, who will be the youngest Major finalist on grass since Garbine Muguruza in 2015.