Jabeur and Rybakina will meet in rematch of 2022 Wimbledon final

Blink and you missed it. It took Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur just 63 minutes to rifle past two-time champion Petra Kvitova on Centre Court on Monday, her eye-catching victory setting up a mouthwatering quarter-final matchup between two tried-and-true Wimbledon standouts.

Jabeur, ranked No 6, will face defending champion Elena Rybakina, for a spot in the semi-finals.

We have women's quarter-finals at Wimbledon!

🇵🇱 Swiatek v Svitolina 🇺🇦
🇺🇸 Pegula v Vondrousova 🇨🇿
🇹🇳 Jabeur v Rybakina 🇰🇿
🇺🇸 Keys v Sabalenka

Who plays the semis?

— Tennis Majors (@Tennis_Majors) July 10, 2023

“It will be a difficult match,” said Jabeur, who squandered a set lead in last year’s final against Rybakina before losing 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. “I’m probably going for my revenge. It was a difficult final last year and it’s going to bring a lot of memories. I’m hoping to play like today and get the win, because she’s an amazing player.”

Jabeur has split four lifetime battles with Rybakina, but they have not met since the Kazakh overcame Jabeur to win her maiden Grand Slam title last year. Since then Rybakina has continued to be a force on tour, while Jabeur has tailed off in 2023, after finishing her career-best season with a runner-up performance at the 2022 US Open.

She’s well aware of the high-octane first-strike tennis that Rybakina will bring to the court for their quarter-final.

“She’s like BOOM! BOOM! all the time – no mercy with her,” Jabeur said with a smile.

A perfect warmup

Kvitova is known to bring the heat as well, but she was quickly defused by the crafty Tunisian and never really made an impact on the match. The second wet was better for Kvitova, as she cut a double-break deficit to a single-break deficit and then held for 3-4, but Jabeur won the final eight points to lock up her second career victory in six matches against the 31-time WTA titlist.

Jabeur converted six of seven break points and cracked 17 winners against 11 unforced errors in the contest.

“It’s amazing,” Jabeur said. “I love how Petra plays and I respect a lot what she has done for women’s tennis. Today to be able to win against her, it’s huge for me.”

“When I won the first set I said to myself: ‘The match is starting right now,” she said. “You never know with Petra you can win 6-0 and then lose 6-0 after – it’s always tricky playing her, I just tried to stay in the moment – I think I really played good today so hopefully [in the quarter-finals] it will be the same.”

Earlier in the tournament, the Tunisian defeated Pole Magdalena Frech (6-3, 6-3), Chinese qualifier Zhuoxuan Bai (6-1, 6-1) and Canadian Bianca Andreescu (3-6, 6-3, 6-4).

Kvitova, ranked No 9, beat Italian Jasmine Paolini (6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1), Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich (6-2, 6-2) and Serb qualifier Natalija Stevanovic (6-3, 7-5) in the previous rounds of The Championships.

London (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 16.077.000, most recent results first):

• Aryna Sabalenka (2) beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (21): 6-4, 6-0
• Elena Rybakina beat Beatriz Haddad Maia (13): 4-1 ret.
• Madison Keys (25) beat Mirra Andreeva (Q): 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2
• Elina Svitolina (WC) beat Victoria Azarenka (19): 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9)
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Belinda Bencic (14): 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3
• Jessica Pegula (4) beat Lesia Tsurenko: 6-1, 6-3
• Marketa Vondrousova beat Marie Bouzkova (32): 2-6, 6-4, 6-3

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