Ons Jabeur got her revenge over Elena Rybakina as she progressed to the semi-finals of Wimbledon with her 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-1 victory in Wednesday’s quarter-final.
Both players met in the 2022 Wimbledon final which Rybakina won 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. The first set of Wednesday’s clash saw Jabeur and Rybakina’s serve broken twice which forced a tiebreak that the Kazakh number three seed won 7-5.
Jabeur responded back in the second set, breaking Rybakina at 5-4 before dominating the third and final set, breaking Rybakina twice to win the set in 32 minutes.
ONS TO THE SEMIS ????????#Wimbledon | @Ons_Jabeur pic.twitter.com/aBQpLvXfXK
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 12, 2023
Speaking after the match, Jabeur joked she wished she could exchange the game for last year’s final that she lost.
“To be honest with you, I just kept going,” she said. “I said I am going for my shots because if you try to play easy with her [Rybakina], it’s not going to work so I tried to hit every shot, showed that I’m here on the court.
“It’s not easy always playing her but I wish we would have exchanged this match for the final last year.”
The 28-year Tunisian will set up a semi-final meeting with Belarusian number two seed Aryna Sabalenka who defeated African-American Madison Keys 6-4, 6-2 in Wednesday’s other quarter-final.
