Wimbledon: A year too late but Ons Jabeur has her revenge

Ons Jabeur, the Minister of Happiness staying true to her nickname, is never too far away from a joke. In the pre-tournament press conference ahead of this Wimbledon, the finalist of last year spoke in jest about she felt like taking off the picture of Elena Rybakina, the champion who beat her, from the walls of the locker room.

The statement may have been made in a lighter vein, yet that defeat did weigh heavily on the Tunisian’s mind. Not just in the immediate aftermath of it but even 12 months later. The moment she brushed past Petra Kvitova, Jabeur signalled, in no uncertain terms, that she was seeking revenge in her rematch with the defending champion.

The photo might still be around but Rybakina won’t be, with Jabeur herself going a step closer to placing her picture there while wiping away the “difficult” memories of last year.

In a first meeting between two former women finalists in a Wimbledon quarter-final since 1969, Jabeur out-muscled the powerful world No. 3 from a set down to come out a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1 winner and set up a semi-final with second seed Aryna Sabalenka. Almost everything in Wednesday’s quarter-final contrasted with last year’s final, which Rybakina won 3-6, 6-2, 6-2: holder of the first strike in the three-set duel, engineer of the turnaround retaliation tale, Rybakina’s serve efficiency, Jabeur’s unwavering mental poise.

That’s where the 28-year-old walked the talk in not just her revenge act but also in the lessons learnt from a year ago. She singled out two factors that caused her downfall then — she carried “mental exhaustion” of being the trailblazer for African and Arab women’s tennis in her first major final, and she drifted away from her game plan.

As the current world No.6 coming into this quarter-final after a modest season on the back of a two-Slam final high of 2022, the first bit was taken care of. In addressing the second, though, was where the tide turned toward the Tunisian.

After a sedate start, both ran into choppy waters with their serve. The Moscow-born Kazakh cashed in on some cheap forehand errors by Jabeur to break her to love. Jabeur responded in kind immediately, a clever defensive drop shot and a cracking return winner standing out.

Two breaks to love were followed by two holds to love, with Jabeur reading the Rybakina crosscourt forehand — among her most lethal weapons — a lot better. The strong-serving Rybakina had been broken just once in her four previous matches. Jabeur did it twice in the first set alone, yet saw a set point come and go at 6-5 serving for the set, which she couldn’t. Rybakina got her serve up and firing again in the tiebreak, fittingly sealing it with a solid down the T first strike.

After losing the second set in their final last year, the expressive Jabeur had started to drop her shoulders and move away from her game strengths, which is to add the trick of touch to the power. On Wednesday, despite losing a set that “should’ve gone my way”, Jabeur held on to her game plan and a composed body language.

“I honestly doubted it a little bit,” she said on court later. “I was yelling at my coach, saying, ‘You told me to keep playing like this’. But I tried to get back in my zone and believe that this is the plan.”

And so she continued to mix the pace behind the ball off her racquet to neutralise Rybakina’s style of play, which, to quote Jabeur, is “boom, boom all the time”. And in the process, Jabeur too went boom, boom. After both players saved a bunch of break points early in the second set, the Tunisian unleashed her forehand fury through three thumping winners when Rybakina served to stay in the set at 4-5.

With 14 winners and three unforced errors from Jabeur, it was a set and statement of dominance. Which she only carried into the decider alongside her game of flair and flourish. She pressed the winners and forced the errors from Rybakina — her first serves dropped to 28% in the third set — and executed whipping squash-like sliced winners. As she earned a break to love in the second game and a bigger cushion a few games later, Jabeur clenched her fists. The reversal, and revenge, writing was on the wall.

“I wish we could exchange this match from the finals last year,” Jabeur said after the win, still joking.