Ons Jabeur celebrates after beating Caroline Garcia. Photo / AP
Ons Jabeur celebrates after beating Caroline Garcia. Photo / AP
Getting to a Grand Slam final is no longer new to Ons Jabeur. She figures it's time to add a major trophy to her list of groundbreaking accomplishments.
And she's sure she is more ready to do it at the US Open than she was at Wimbledon two months ago.
Jabeur reached a second consecutive Slam title match without needing to produce her best tennis, taking full advantage of a shaky showing by Caroline Garcia to win their semifinal at Flushing Meadows 6-1, 6-3.
The No 5-seeded Jabeur, a 28-year-old from Tunisia, was the runner-up at the All England Club in July and now will be the first African woman to participate in a final at the US Open in the professional era, which dates to 1968.
"Feels more real, to be honest with you, just to be in the final again. At Wimbledon, I was kind of just living the dream, and I couldn't believe it," Jabeur said after ending No 17 Garcia's 13-match winning streak, which included a victory over 18-year-old American Coco Gauff in the quarter-finals. "Now just, I hope, I'm getting used to it. Now maybe I know what to do.
"After Wimbledon, [there was] a lot of pressure on me," Jabeur said following a win that took barely more than an hour, "and I'm really relieved that I can back up my results."
On Sunday, Jabeur will meet world No 1 Iga Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland, already owns two trophies from the French Open's red clay but never had been past the fourth round on New York's hard courts.
Iga Swiatek reacts after defeating Aryna Sabalenka. Photo / AP
Swiatek came back to beat No 6 Aryna Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. After dropping the first set, she took the second. After falling behind 4-2 in the third, she grabbed the last four games and 16 of the last 20 points to close in on a third Slam title.
She'll have a tough test against Jabeur, who improved to 6-0 in semifinals this season and earned her tour-leading 92nd victory in all since the start of 2021.
To Jabeur's surprise, and delight, she heard her quarter-final victory over Ajla Tomljanovic on Wednesday was drawing viewers back home, even though it was on TV the same night as a Champions League game between Juventus and Paris St Germain.
"In Tunisia, it's all about soccer," she said. "But people were not watching the game, they were watching my game, which is impressive to me."
That's part of the way in which she is changing views about tennis in her country — and on a continent. Since pro players were first admitted to major tennis tournaments, never had an African woman or Arab woman been to a Slam final until she did that two months ago at Wimbledon, where she ended up losing to Elena Rybakina. In 2020, at the Australian Open, she became the first Arab woman to reach the quarter-finals at a major.
Last year produced all sorts of milestones: first Arab player to break into the top 10 of the men's or women's rankings; first Arab to win a WTA title.
"Definitely saying out loud what I want to do is part of me achieving things," said Jabeur, who dropped to her knees and let out a yell when the semifinal against Garcia ended, then followed that up by laying on her back in the middle of the court.
"I'm sure it's a lot of pressure on her shoulders," said Garcia, a 28-year-old from France. "But she looks like to be managing it really well."
Their match was an extension of the lopsided series between two players who first began playing each other as juniors more than a decade ago. Including encounters as teens, Jabeur is now 7-0 against Garcia.
"Mentally," said Jabeur, who travels with a sports psychologist, "I was so ready."
