Jabeur roars, ons to the semis

Agencies

Wimbledon: Ons Jabeur has enjoyed sweet revenge over Elena Rybakina for her defeat in last year's Wimbledon final, sending the champion spinning out of the tournament.

The Tunisian allcourt wizard became the first player at Wimbledon to come from a set down to beat the brilliant front-running Kazakh, neutralising the No.3 seed's easy power with her brilliant defence and varied array of strokeplay to prevail 6-7 (5- 7) 6-4 6-1 in their quarterfinal on Wednesday.

Now Jabeur will have to defuse another power player in the semi-final after Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka reached the last four at Wimbledon for the second straight time, after a year's break when she was banned from the tournament in 2022.

While Jabeur was working her magic on Centre, the powerhouse Sabalenka, who's already lifted the Australian Open title this year, advanced by dismissing American Madison Keys 6-2 6-4 on No.1 Court.

Jabeur, the trailblazer who became the first African and Arab woman player to reach the final last year, kept her nerve after the frustration of missing out on a set point in the opening stanza.

Instead, it just provided the prelude to Jabeur outplaying the tournament favourite for the rest of the one hour, 53 minute contest.

"I'm very happy, there was a lot of emotion out there," said a thrilled Jabeur.

"I wish I could exchange this match for the final last year! "I said 'I'm going to keep going for for my shots'. If you play easy with her, it's not going to work."

Sabalenka, the No.2 seed, had to sit out last year's competition along with other players from her country and from Russia because of the war in Ukraine.

"It really feels amazing to be back in the semifinals. I can't wait to play in my second semi-final at Wimbledon," Sabalenka, who lost to runner-up Karolina Pliskova in 2021, told the crowd.

"Hopefully I can do better than I did last time." The victory improved Sabalenka's record to 17-1 at major tournaments this year.

After victory in Melbourne, she reached the semi-finals at the French Open before her five wins so far on the grass at Wimbledon.