No.6 seed Ons Jabeur rallied for a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 win over No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court to book a place in her third career Grand Slam final, and second straight at the All England Club.
Jabeur is the first woman to reach back-to-back finals at Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2018-19. Williams lost both of those matches, and Jabeur will seek to avoid that fate when she faces Czech left-hander Marketa Vondrousova in Saturday’s final — the first unseeded Wimbledon women’s finalist in the Open Era.
For the second straight match at Wimbledon — she also rallied from a set down in a rematch of the 2022 final to beat Elena Rybakina in the quarters — Jabeur came from behind for a three-set victory, and with wins over Rybakina, Sabalenka and Petra Kvitova this fortnight, Jabeur is the first woman to defeat three Top 10 players at Wimbledon since Williams in 2012.
Sabalenka led by a set and a break at 7-6(5), 4-2 — having come from 4-2 down in the first-set tiebreak — to put herself on the precipice of both her second major final, and the World No. 1 ranking.
But Jabeur erased two chances Sabalenka had for 5-3, before breaking her serve for the first time all match, to get herself back i the contest. She won four straight games in the middle set, and broke Sabalenka in the sixth game of the decider, to turn the match all the way around.
She needed five match points to seal victory: Sabalenka saved two on her serve in the eighth game, and after two more passed Jabeur by from 40-0 up in the last game, she hammered down an ace to seal the deal after 2 hours and 19 minutes. It was her first of the set, and just her third of the match — to counter Sabalenka’s 10.
