In the previous year, Ons Jabeur finished second behind Elena Rybakina at Wimbledon. This year, she hopes to win.
Ons Jabeur was pursuing history a year ago while looking at a picture of the Wimbledon women’s trophy on her phone.
After losing the actual contest, she quickly deleted it. However, she will have another opportunity on Saturday when she competes against Marketa Vondrousova in the championship match (14:00 BST).
In an effort to become the first African or Arab woman to win a Grand Slam singles championship, the well-liked Tunisian is hoping that her third major final will be fortuitous.
She expressed hope that she would be able to change Africa and Tunisia as well.
Jabeur, the sixth seed, is expected to win the women’s final, just like she did in 2017. The 42nd-ranked Vondrousova will take on the 28-year-old, who is attempting to make history by being the first unseeded player to win the Venus Rosewater Dish. Vondrousova is also trying for a piece of history in this match.
When Jabeur lost to Elena Rybakina last year after a six-month recovery from surgery, Vondrousova, 24, was in London as a tourist with her wrist in a plaster cast.
Just being here makes me feel so grateful. This is crazy, Vondrousova added, that it’s occurring.
The Czech, like Jabeur, who lost in the US Open final two months after her Wimbledon failure, finished second in the 2019 French Open as a 19-year-old. As a result, both players can depend on experience from prior Grand Slam finals.
Jabeur is planning to “learn” from last year.
Only South Africa’s Johan Kriek, who won the singles title at the 1981 Australian Open, is an African-American player to have ever claimed a Slam championship during the Open era. Even though he was then representing the United States, Kriek won once more the following year.
Jabeur has been motivated by retaliation at the All England Club, and she utilized that to defeat Rybakina in the quarterfinals as she aims to become the first woman from the continent to win.
The Kazakh was one of four Grand Slam winners Jabeur had to defeat on a difficult path to the final. Jabeur also overcame Aryna Sabalenka, the defending Australian Open champion, Petra Kvitova, and Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion.
According to her, whether you are up against a major champion or not in the final doesn’t matter.
I consider a final to be a final, Jabeur stated. Whoever could manage the emotions better and who could be more prepared on the court would win that game.
Jabeur reached another major final despite having a stop-start season due to injury and minor knee surgery.
She interprets the difficulties and disappointments from the previous year in the customary way of a player known as the “Minister of Happiness” at home.
She remarked, “[The injuries] teach me to be very patient and accept whatever happened to me… because it was out of my control.”
“I mean, I would take it if you told me you’d get hurt and be in the Wimbledon final.”
Jabeur, who has garnered many admirers with her emotive performances, is also hopeful that third time will be the charm.
In the US Open final as well as the Wimbledon final, she promised to take a lot of lessons from both and give it her all. “Perhaps this year was all about giving something a shot twice and nailing it the third time,” she suggested.
She has also disclosed what is on her phone’s lock screen this year to spur her on, possibly to avoid casting a bad omen. She told reporters: “You’ll find out after the final.”
Although Vondrousova doesn’t yet have a sponsor for clothing, a cat sitter is arranged.
After defeating fourth-seeded American Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals and defeating Elina Svitolina in two sets, Vondrousova has triumphed against challenging opponents in the previous two rounds.
The latter event took place in front of a partisan Centre Court audience that was emotionally immersed in Ukrainian Svitolina’s run, which occurred nine months after giving birth and against the backdrop of conflict.
With nine major women’s singles finals, including Saturday’s match, involving Czech tennis players in the last ten years, she is the most recent in a long series of Czech female tennis players to advance to Grand Slam finals.
She does not, however, do well on grass, and she would not have anticipated winning a major championship there.
Vondrousova, who has recently disappeared from the tennis scene so completely that she no longer has a clothing sponsor, stated, “When it was clay or hard, maybe I would say, yeah maybe it’s possible.”
I couldn’t, however, cut grass. That this is occurring is much more bizarre.
Her run caught her off guard to the point where she instructed her husband to stay at home in Prague and take care of their cat, Frankie.
Her perspective has since shifted.
The cat sitter was invited to our house through SMS, she stated. Tomorrow, he will be here, the wife said.
