Over a few hours the narratives changed. As Elina Svitolina departed in the first Wimbledon semi-final of Thursday, Ukraine and its issues went with her. Later Ons Jabeur came back from a set down to beat Aryna Sabalenka and the possibility of the Princess of Wales handing the trophy to a Belarusian also left the stage.
What remained was Czech player Markéta Vondroušová emerging from a bleak period of injury and the ongoing hopes and dreams of Tunisia’s Jabeur to become the first African player to win the Wimbledon singles title. Whatever happens on Saturday there will be a new name on the Wimbledon trophy.
Jabeur, an engaging personality, will go into the final a firm crowd favourite. With each point scoring punch of the ball or miss by Sabalenka, the Centre Court crowd shrieked and balled.
Claiming the Arab woman as one of their own, Jabeur narrowly lost the first set on a tiebreak before fighting her way into the match in the second, murdering a second serve from Sabalenka at 40-30 up and claiming the set 6-4.
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Jabeur’s return of service game was on and she minimised her mistakes. It was there Sabalenka will look back and see how she lost the match. She hit 45 unforced errors, a ludicrous number, to Jabeur’s 14, with 26 of those off her backhand side.
In the third set Jabeur grabbed her third break point to go 4-2 up and take hold of the set. A crashed backhand down the line to hold serve and make it 5-2 placed her firmly in control.
Sabalenka survived two match points on her serve to then force Jabeur to serve for the match at 5-3. Then, on the fifth match point she snapped down an ace for 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-3 to complete the comeback.
“For me it was just one serve, one game. I just wanted to try to break her. It was very difficult for me to return her serve. Especially if she was mixing a lot. Even the speed was difficult,” said Jabeur
“I was like, honestly, I’m not going to give a s**t, I’m just going to go in and hit my return. Yeah, it was coming. I was returning much better.”
The fans of Jabeur call her the “Minister of Happiness” for Tunisia.
“They’re funny, because a few fans are texting my mental coach, giving her advice on how to coach me. For me there is one goal: I’m going for it. I will prepare 100 per cent. Hopefully I can make history not just for Tunisia, but for Africa.”
For Svitolina the week seemed to unravel for her rather than go down with fire and brimstone defiance. Her cheer at the end was the louder of the pair as they left Centre Court but not the one she desired, losing in two sets to the revived Czech left-hander in under an hour.
“I tried to fight back, but I guess I rushed little bit myself and didn’t serve well on that game when it was 4-3. Yeah, I just tried to fight. I tried to fight. Got few games back.
“I guess it was also nervous moment for Markéta because also playing semi-final is never easy to finish the match. I tried to fight back and just, yeah, give everything out there, even though I didn’t play my best today. Yeah, didn’t happen. Today I wish I played a bit better. Yeah, I wish that some games I play better.”
Svitolina, only the fourth wildcard entry in men’s or women’s to make it through to a semi-final appeared to be running on empty after a fretful two weeks. She finally crashed out 6-3, 6-3 with Vondroušová making it to her second Grand Slam final after the French Open in 2019 and becoming the first unseeded women’s finalist at SW19 since Billie Jean King in 1963.
“I mean, after everything I’ve been through, two surgeries, it’s not always easy to come back,” said Vondroušová. “You don’t know if you can play at this level and if you can be back at the top and back at these tournaments. I just feel like I’m just grateful to be on a court again, to play without pain.”
