The All England Club’s nightmare scenario of a Wimbledon final between players from Belarus and Ukraine has moved one step closer, with Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina the favorites emerging from the semi-final on Center Court on Thursday.
With tennis already a maverick in the way it has welcomed Russian players into its fold, the most high-profile sporting encounter between citizens of the two sides in the conflict could happen in front of the Princess of Wales on Saturday.
In her role as patron of the All England club, the princess is also faced with the possibility of presenting a trophy to a Belarusian – Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed and clear favorite – who has staged a propaganda coup for the aggressors. in the Eastern European conflict.
One of the two remaining obstacles to such a result is the player who, on the day after Svitolina’s heroics against Iga Swiatek, became another darling of the Wimbledon courts.
Ons Jabeur, the Tunisian who now faces Sabalenka, recalled the same player’s defeat in last year’s final in her match against No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina – an encounter she hasn’t been able to look back on since. “To this day, I couldn’t watch this match. I can watch today’s game. That’s no problem! But not last year’s,’ she said with a smile, after taking this revenge.
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (left), who is favorite to win the women’s singles at Wimbledon, could face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina (right) in the final in a potential nightmare scenario
Sabalenka first has to pass Ons Jabeur (photo), who defeated Elena Rybakina
Kate Middleton (right) faces the prospect of handing the trophy to a Belarusian player
She had no intention of letting history repeat itself. Rybakina, an inscrutable, silent assassin, ended her almighty services and approached 200 mph, but Jabeur just knocked them right back, saw them and attacked them in a way that finally knocked down her opponent.
“If you want to hit hard, I’m willing to hit hard too,” was her description of the approach she took. “If you play easy with her, it’s not going to work.”
Last year she was definitely in her head. She even made sure to switch places at the umpire’s chair. “I went for the other seat she won last year. Maybe it’s the chair that won me today!’ she revealed.
It helped that Rybakina only got 62 percent of her first serve in the first set and only 28 percent in the third, as her game collapsed under the weight of Jabeurs’ relentless power and accuracy.
Last year’s champion, Rybakina, won the first set, but then conceded in the match from then on
But Jabeur also found a new level, pounding kickbacks into the favourite’s feet and sometimes right past her. She was not drowning in her desire for revenge. Her 13 winners and only three unforced errors showed that.
It wasn’t just brute force on her part, either. They don’t call her the Minister of Happiness in Tunisia for nothing. There were occasional lavish drop shots, though less than usual. There were the slashed squash shots — three of them back to back in a third set change — that delighted an arena that has always loved the mavericks and the off-the-cuff.
The crucial moment came after Jabeur lost a set point and allowed Rybakina to take the first set into a tiebreak and win it. “It should have gone my way,” she thought about that opener. “I kept yelling at my coach, ‘You told me to play like this!'”
But she was undaunted, putting a forehand down the line and sending a backhand return on Rybakina’s serve to secure a late break in the second set and take the match to a third set just like last year’s final . Only this time Rybakina’s race was held.
“If you want to hit hard, I’m ready to hit hard too,” said Jabeur after her Center Court win
She had no intention of letting history repeat itself after missing her opponent in the final last year
Sabalenka, another monumental hitter who has won three of her four encounters with Jabeur, is another major obstacle. She took an hour and a half on Wednesday to pass American Madison Keys 6-2, 6-4.
Svitolina, who received a wild card here after being out of the game after giving birth, will have most of the British people behind her in Thursday’s earlier semi-final against unseeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova, the world number 42.
Jabeur said the way she beat Rybakina helped her believe she could take on the most powerful hitters “and go 100 percent” — strengthening her for her semifinal where she felt she had nothing to lose.
“Hopefully the crowd will be with me,” she said. The All England club certainly will.