Jabeur in final so dream set to be real
Getting to a Grand Slam tennis final is no longer new to Ons Jabeur. She figures it’s time to add a major trophy to her list of groundbreaking accomplishments.
And she’s sure she is more ready to do it at the US Open than she was at Wimbledon two months ago.
Jabeur reached a second consecutive Slam title match without needing to produce her best tennis yesterday, taking full advantage of a shaky showing by Caroline Garcia to win their semifinal at Flushing Meadows in New York 6-1, 6-3.
“Feels more real, to be honest with you, just to be in the final again. At Wimbledon, I was kind of just living the dream, and I couldn’t believe it,” Jabeur said after ending No 17 Garcia’s
13-match winning streak, which included a victory over Coco Gauff. “Now maybe I know what to do.”
Tomorrow, with a championship on the line, Jabeur will go up against No 1-ranked Iga Swiatek, who grabbed the last four games, and 16 of the last
20 points, to come back and beat No 6 Aryna Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
The first step for Swiatek to turn things around came when she headed to the locker room after the first set — to use the bathroom and think about what to adjust on court.
“I needed to get it together,” said Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland who already has two trophies from the French Open’s red clay, including one this June, but had never been past the fourth round on New York’s hard courts.
Sabalenka, meanwhile, dropped to 0-3 in Slam semifinals for her career and 12-11 in three-setters this year. She broke for a 4-2 lead in the third set — and 17 minutes later, it was over, as Swiatek surged to the finish.
“She was just going for it,” said Sabalenka. “She was hitting every ball and putting me under pressure and playing really aggressively.”
Swiatek has emerged as a dominant figure in women’s tennis, with a
37-match winning streak that brought her six titles in one stretch. If she can defeat Jabeur, Swiatek will become the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win two majors in one season.
The No 5-seeded Jabeur, a 28-yearold from Tunisia, was runner-up at the All England Club in July and now will be the first African woman to participate in a US Open final in the professional era, which dates to 1968.
“After Wimbledon, [there was] a lot of pressure on me,” Jabeur said following a win that took barely more than an hour, “and I’m really relieved that I can back up my results.”
The men’s semifinals this morning see No 3 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain against No 22 Frances Tiafoe of the United States, and No 5 Casper Ruud of Norway taking on No 27 Karen Khachanov of Russia.
With four-time major champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in her guest box — they traded thumbs-up signals at match’s end — Jabeur improved to
6-0 in semifinals this season and earned her tour-leading 92nd victory in all since the start of 2021. No 91 came when she defeated Ajla Tomljanovic, who eliminated Serena Williams in the third round.
To Jabeur’s surprise and delight, she heard her victory over Tomljanovic on Wednesday was drawing viewers back home, even though there was also a Champions League game between Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain on TV.
“In Tunisia, it’s all about soccer,” she said. “But people were not watching [that] game, they were watching my game, which is impressive to me.”
Just one example of how she is changing views about tennis in her country — and on a continent.
Since pro players were first admitted to major tennis tournaments, never had an African woman or Arab woman been to a Slam final until she did that at the All England Club before losing to Elena Rybakina.
At the 2020 Australian Open, she became the first Arab woman to reach the quarter-finals at a major. Last year, she was the first Arab player to break into the top 10 of the men’s or women’s rankings and first with a WTA title.
“I’m sure it’s a lot of pressure on her shoulders,” said Garcia, a 28-yearold from France. “But she looks to be managing it really well.”