New York, Sept. 9 (BUS): Reaching a Grand Slam final is no longer a new thing for Ons Jabeur. She thinks it’s time to add a big trophy to her list of groundbreaking achievements.
And she’s more certain she’s ready to do so at the US Open than she was at Wimbledon two months ago, according to the Associated Press.
Jaber reached her second consecutive Slam tournament without having to produce her best tennis on Thursday night, taking full advantage of Caroline Garcia’s shaky display to win the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows 6-1, 6-3.
“I feel more real, to be honest with you, just to be in the final again. At Wimbledon, I was just living the dream, and I couldn’t believe it,” Jaber said after ending Garcia’s 13-game winning streak, which included a win over the American 18-year-old Coco Gauff at the race. Quarter-finals. “Only now, I hope I can get used to it. …Now I might know what to do.”
On Saturday, with a championship at stake, Jaber will face No. 1 seed Iga Swetic, who has grabbed the last four matches, and 16 of the last 20 points, to come back and defeat sixth seed Aryna Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-finals. Second.
Swiatek has emerged as the dominant figure in women’s tennis this year, with 37 consecutive matches and six titles. If she can defeat Jaber, Swiatek will become the first woman since Angelique Kerber to win two major championships in one season.
Fifth seed Gaber, the 28-year-old from Tunisia, was the runner-up at the All England Club in July and will now be the first African woman to enter a US Open final in the professional era. , which dates back to 1968.
“After Wimbledon, (there was) a lot of pressure on me, and I’m really relieved that I can support my results,” Jaber said after a win that took barely more than an hour.
With four-time main champion Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in her guest box – they traded thumbs up at the end of the match – Jabeur improved to 6-0 in the semi-finals this season and claimed her 92nd-leading win in all since the start of 2021. The seed Number 91 when she beat Agla Tomljanovic, who knocked out third-round Serena Williams.
To Jaber’s surprise and happiness, she heard that her quarter-final victory over Tomljanovic on Tuesday was drawing viewers home, even though it was shown on TV on the same night as the Champions League match between Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
“In Tunisia, it’s all about football,” she said. “But people weren’t watching the match, they were watching my match, which is very impressive to me.”
This is part of the way she has changed views about tennis in her country – and on the continent.
Since professional players were first accepted into the major tennis tournaments, no African or Arab woman has made a grand slam final until she did two months ago at Wimbledon, where she ended up losing to Elena Rybakina.
In 2020, at the Australian Open, she became the first Arab woman to reach the quarter-finals of a major tournament. Last year produced all sorts of achievements: the first Arab player to reach the top ten in the men’s or women’s rankings. The first Arab to win the WTA title.
said Jaber, who got to her knees and let out a shriek when the semi-final match against Garcia ended, and then followed that up by lying on her back in the middle of the court.
“I’m sure her shoulders are a lot of pressure,” said Garcia, 28, from France. “But she seems to be managing it really well.”
On this 75-degree (24-degree Celsius) evening under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Jaber heeded her coach’s instructions to focus on chasing Garcia’s backhand and finished with 21 winners – helped by a shell bounce off the top. From Grid, Jaber raised his hand to apologise, then sent a kiss to heaven – and only 15 unintentional mistakes.
She delivered eight aces. I went 4 vs 4 at break opportunities and didn’t encounter any.
When Jaber began a second-half break to lead 3-1 after just 40 minutes, the match had not yet been won, but it may have been.
After a minute’s silence commemorating the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Garcia won the coin toss and chose to serve, which makes sense when you consider that she’s leading the tour in aces in 2022 (although she only hit two on Thursday).
But Garcia broke immediately, thanks to four fouls of different kinds—a boxy forehand, a wide forehand, a long backhand—and, most disturbing and perhaps the most nerve-wracking, what should have been an easy shot I barely managed to shake to make contact with and tossed in the bottom of the network.
It was an inauspicious and somewhat tense start for Garcia, who didn’t lose a set at Flushing Meadows en route to her slam semi-final debut.
“Mentally, I was very prepared,” said Jaber, who travels with a sports psychologist.
She plans to be there again on Saturday. Swiatek will stand in the way.
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