Second seed Ons Jabeur achieved a new milestone for both her and her country at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
The world No.2 battled back from a set down to defeat Marie Bouzkova 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, to reach the last four of a major event for the first time in her career. Jabeur has now dropped only one set in five matches played and is the highest ranked player remaining in the draw. Her major breakthrough comes seven years after she made her Grand Slam debut at the 2015 Australian Open.
“I played really good from beginning of the second set, especially having a early break kind of helps me gain confidence,” said Jabeur.
“I know it wasn’t easy playing Marie. She gets all the balls and doesn’t make, to win a point, easy for me. I’m glad I stepped in with my game. I was more aggressive in the second set, and especially tactically I was playing some angles that she didn’t like much.”
To mark Jabeur’s Wimbledon milestone, here are 10 facts to know about her:-
- She is the first North African player – male or female – to reach a Grand Slam semi-final. The last woman from the entire African continent to reach a major semi-final was Amanda Coetzer at the 1997 French Open.
- Her win over Bouzkova is Jabeur’s 26th Tour-level win on the grass.
- Jabeur has now won 83 matches over the past two seasons. This is more than any other player on the WTA Tour.
- Has won 21 out of her last 23 matches.
- She is the only Tunisian woman currently ranked in the world’s top 700.
- Jabeur had failed to win back-to-back matches on her three out of her four previous appearances at Wimbledon in 2017, 2018 and 2019. She reached the quarter-finals in 2021.
- Coming into Wimbledon she has already earned more than $6.2m in prize money in her career.
- She has won three Tour titles in Birmingham (2021), Madrid (2022) and Berlin (2022).
- Has beaten a top 10 player four times in her career – Dominika Cibulkova (2017 French Open), Simona Halep (Beijing 2018), Sloane Stephens (Moscow 2018) and Karolina Pliskova (Doha 2020).
- In October 2021 she became the first Arab player (mae or female) to crack the world’s top 10 in tennis.
