How is that? Sobolenko could become the first racket in the world, but he missed the end of the semifinals.
Pavel Panyshev July 13, 2023, 19:55 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
After Elena Rybakina, the Tunisian tennis player Ons Jaber eliminated another of the Wimbledon favorites.
In Ons Jaber’s career there has not been a single Grand Slam title won, although last year the Tunisian came close to her long-awaited dream twice: she reached the Wimbledon final and the USOpen, where she lost to Elena Rybakina and Iga Sviontek. The day before, Zhaber took revenge on Rybakina in the quarterfinals.
How Zhaber deprived Rybakin of the chance to defend the title
There is a revenge! Rybakina did not defend her title at Wimbledon, missing the third set in a match with Zhaber
Today’s opponent, Arina Sobolenko, has already won the Australian Open, but at Wimbledon she did not even reach the final. The semifinal is the best achievement of the Belarusian on the courts of London. Yesterday Arina didn’t give Madison Keys a chance in the 1/4 tournament.
“I feel like I’m one of the best. There are also other great players. Not that he is the best now, but one of the best.
I remember how, at the age of 14-15, I went to training with headphones, listened to music and dreamed of becoming one of the best tennis players in the world, dreamed of how I would lift these beautiful trophies.
It’s something amazing. The fact that I was able to become one of the best motivates me a lot. I compete at a high level, this is very important to me. I will do everything in my power to lift this beautiful trophy”, Sabolenko said after yesterday’s success.
Arina Sobolenko tears herself higher and higher article
A 1st place win! Sobolenko is already in the Wimbledon semifinals and can eliminate Swiatek
In personal meetings, Sobolenko led with a score of 3-1. After losing in the third round of Roland Garros 2020, she won three times in a row, including in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon 2021. At the same time, Zhaber reached the Wimbledon final last year, while Arina’s best result in this tournament is the semifinal.
It is important that in case of reaching the final, Sobolenko can add enough points to overtake Iga Sviontek and become the first racket in the world after Wimbledon. We also note that Arina became the first tennis player after Serena Williams in 2016, who in one season reached at least the semifinals at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Arina, as expected, immediately started using her powerful serve, but unforced errors still crept in. The tennis player periodically gave free rein to his emotions, reacting violently to the lost points. Zhaber also kept his serve confident, acting a little more confident on draws and trying to show off some combination tennis. In a match like that, things went to a tiebreaker, and that’s how it happened. Tunisia led 4-2, for the time playing magnificent shots, but then unexpectedly slowed down and missed.
Arina Sobolenko failed to reach the Wimbledon final
Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
In general, an equal first batch. At the reception, Ons had a little more chances, but Arina turned on the serve just in time, she has six aces and a lot of active second serves, which are not much inferior in speed to the first.
In the second set, the trend of winning games on her serve continued: neither girl was able to break. Everything was interrupted in the fifth game, when Ons, to the surprise of her coach, lost the shot to zero, committing a double fault at the end. Sobolenko, of course, was just waiting for this.
The gill seemed to “float”, making a lot of mistakes. Tunisia was clearly in a bad psychological state. True, with a score of 4:3 in favor of Arina, the tennis players gave an elegant game on the court of the Belarusian tennis player, which Ons took out literally on a moral-voluntary basis, making a reverse break. Then Zhaber won her serve and then Sobolenko broke down psychologically. 6: 4 – An athlete from Tunisia took the set, once again showing her character. We saw something similar in her game with Rybakina.
In the third set, Zhaber continued to act with confidence and sporting poise, while Sabolenko often made mistakes in simple situations. As a result, a lost serve and a score of 4:2 in favor of the opponent. In addition, already with the score 5:2, Ons had two match points, but Arina still forced this game. However, Jabeur took his serve and reached the Wimbledon final for the second year in a row. This is the thirteenth decisive victory for the representative of Tunisia since 2018: no one has more than her. In the final, Ons will play the Czech Marketa Vondrousova, who turned out to be stronger than the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. The first racket in the world after the end of the tournament will be Iga Sviontek.
