Wimbledon 2021: Aryna Sabalenka and Karolina Pliskova power through to maiden Wimbledon semi-finals
Aryna Sabalenka and Karolina Pliskova will battle it out for a place in a first Wimbledon final after setting up a semi-final showdown with victories in the last eight on Tuesday.
All four players in the bottom half of the draw were playing in the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time and despite the romance of Viktorija Golubic, the world No 66, and the trail-blazing, crowd-pleasing 21st-seed Ons Jabeur, it was experience that prevailed.
Sabalenka is the highest-ranked player in the world without a major title, but until this week she had never been beyond the fourth round of a major in singles competition – but a 6-4 6-3 win over Jabeur kept her title hopes alive in front of the week’s first sell-out crowd on Centre Court.
Meanwhile, in the opening quarter-final, Pliskova, the world No 13, was too good for Switzerland’s Golubic with a 6-2 6-2 victory that continues her best showing in the year’s grass-court major.
- Ons Jabeur blazing a trail for Arab woman tennis
- Wimbledon Men’s Draw I Women’s Draw
Wimbledon 2021: Women’s Semi-Finals
Sabalenka’s blistering power too much for Jabeur
The quarter-final between Sabalenka and Jabeur pitted the two players with the most wins on the WTA Tour this year against each other, and they served up a treat.
From the outset, a match that promised much delivered plenty, as the power of Sabalenka went up against the throwback style of Jabeur, whose selection of spins, slices and drop shots keep every opponent guessing.
However, it was the Tunisian’s serve which was largely untouched throughout the opening eight games as the pair held serve with little trouble. Jabeur fashioned the only break point but Sabalenka saw that off in the opening game of the match.
“I’m really happy, it’s always a tough match against Ons, she’s such a great player and an amazing player so it’s tough to play against her and I’m really happy I could beat her.
Guys, you make this place special, thank you so much for the support. The atmosphere was unbelievable today.
“I’m happy from the side that it looks like everything is working for me.”
Aryna Sabalenka, second seed
Trailing 5-4 and serving to keep the first set alive, Jabeur faced her first break points at the most crucial of junctures. The first was saved with a fearsome first serve, the second and third when Sabalenka will feel she should have done better.
A fourth set-point came and went for Sabalenka before the second seed finally had her break and, with it, the set, as Jabeur could fend off the groundstrokes no more and dumped her forehand into the net.
The Tunisian trailblazer ??
Well played, @Ons_Jabeur – see you next year ?#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/ABCq6X1GDH
Jabeur – the first Arab woman to win a WTA title earlier this year – had come from a set down to beat Grand Slam champions Garbine Muguruza and Iga Swiatek in the previous two rounds and she roared out of the gate in the second set to earn three chances to break the Belarusian’s serve.
Again Sabalenka – who has two Grand Slam doubles titles on her CV – had an answer, a brutal forehand and some huge serving enough to save them all and hold onto her serve before earning her own chance for a pivotal moment.
With three break points of her own, Sabalenka needed all three before a slip from Jabeur handed her the chance for a 2-0 lead, which she took.
Jabeur hit straight back to get the match on serve. Having wasted three in the previous service game from the Belarusian, she needed just one, a trademark drop shot forcing Sabalenka to stretch and send the ball long.
Sabalenka was digging as deep as she had needed to do in the contest, another huge serve helping her fend off a chance for Jabeur to lead 3-2.
However, despite throwing everything she could at Sabalenka there was no way through for the Tunisian, who was up against an opponent determined to make her own history as she bludgeoned her way into a 5-3 lead.
Jabeur asked one final question as she earned herself a seventh break point, but, as she had done on five of the previous six occasions, Sabalenka stood firm, staved off the threat and fired an unstoppable backhand winner to keep her best-ever run in the singles at a Grand Slam going.
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Has now reached the semifinals at all four Grand Slams ?@KaPliskova locked in her #Wimbledon semifinal spot after only dropping 4⃣ games against Golubic ?
Pliskova powers into final four
Up next Sabalenka will face Pliskova, the Czech eighth seed, who continued her own best-ever showing at Wimbledon with a routine 6-2 6-2 win over Switzerland’s Golubic.
“It’s my first semi-final here at Wimbledon and it’s my first time on this court this year,” Pliskova said after her victory, which took just 81 minutes.
“I feel like I’m improving with every match and I had some days where I worked on the footwork in my game and today I think everything worked quite well, I was feeling super fit.”
Golubic has suffered first-round defeats in 14 of her previous 17 Grand Slam singles appearances, but had impressed all week in her breakthrough major run at the age of 28.
However, Pliskova has yet to drop a set, and has not even been taken to a tie-break. So it was no surprise that the Czech fashioned the first break of the match in an epic fourth game.
A brilliant Golubic backhand cross-court saved it, before Pliskova had her breakthrough in Golubic’s next service game.
“I didn’t think about that really (not dropping a set yet), but I feel my game is good the last few weeks even in the practices so that’s why I think I’ve beaten some good players and we’ve had some good preparation with my team so I’m really happy for that and hopefully we can continue.
“For now I’ll just enjoy this moment because it’s never happened before for me so I don’t want to stress about my next match just now.”
Karolina Plsikova, eighth seed
With a 4-2 lead behind her, Pliskova consolidated to close out a ninth successive set at the Championships and there was no letting up in the second set.
An early break gave Pliskova control and while Golubic eked out her first chances of a break in the seventh game of the second set, Pliskova saw off all three of them off before sealing the match on her opponent’s serve.
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