Sabalenka and Jabeur power into Wimbledon semi-final
Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur moved into a semi-final showdown at Wimbledon on Wednesday following wins over Madison Keys and Elena Rybakina respectively.
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Sabalenka, who reached the last four at Wimbledon in 2021, wrapped up proceedings against the 25th seed 6-2, 6-4 in 87 minutes on Court 1.
“It really feels amazing to be back in the semifinals," said the 25-year-old Belarusian. "I can’t wait to play in my second semi-final at Wimbledon.”
Jabeur, the sixth seed, avenged her defeat in last year's final with a gutsy performance against the third seed.
The 28-year-old Tunisian served for the first set at 6-5 up and made her way to set point. But she fluffed the chance as Rybakina broke back to level at 6-6. Rybakina took the tiebreak seven points to five.
Surge
Jabeur edged the second set 6-4 and she ran away with the decider deploying her usual arsenal of drop shots, slices and spins as well as raw power - the highlight of which were three consecutive backhands down the line to pin Rybakina back and ultimately punish her to claim the double break and a 5-1 lead.
"If you try to play easy with her, it's not going to work," said Jabeur. "I wish we could exchange this match with the final last year."
Of her semi-final clash with Sabalenka -who has won three of their four encounters - Jabeur said: "I saw she won quickly so I wasn't happy about that. It's going to be very fast against her and it will be a challenge. She has been playing well this year."
An understatement. It will be Sabalenka's third consecutive appearance in the last four at a Grand Slam tournament this year.
In January, she went on to claim the Australian Open and in Paris she fluffed a match point on her way to a loss against Karolina Muchova.
"Ons is a great player," said Sabalenka. "We always had tough battles against each other, very close matches. I'm really looking forward for this great battle."
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