Tunisian Anas Jaber seeks to be the third steady when she competes in the final of the English Open tennis tournament (Wimbledon) on Saturday, the third of the four major tournaments (Grand Slam) against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova, which will make her the first Arab and African player to lift a major championship trophy in the history of yellow ball.
Anas came close to the title twice last year, by reaching the first major final of her career at Wimbledon, which she lost to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, before falling nearly two months later in the US Open final against the world’s first Polish Iga Schvontec.
The world number six will be a candidate against her 42nd counterpart, who became the first unseeded player to reach the Wimbledon final in 60 years, and the first in the modern era of the game that began in 1968.
On her way to the final, the 28-year-old Tunisian defeated 4 Grand Slam champions, Canadian Bianca Andreescu (Flushing Meadows 2019), Czech Petra Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, Rybakina in the quarter-finals when she avenged her loss last year, and Belarusian Arina Sabalenka, Australian champion. Open and seeded again in the last box.
In 3 of those four matches, except for the one against Kvitova, she came back from a set down and won the match. And only 3 players in the modern era have achieved this in 3 matches at Wimbledon, after the Belgian Justine Enan in 2001 and the French Marion Bartoli in 2007.
Sharapova No
She also became the first player to beat 3 players from the top 10 since Serena Williams in 2012.
And only 6 players failed to win the first 3 final matches in the major tournaments, but two of them (American Chris Evert and Belgian Kim Clijsters) made up for lost time.
Jaber reaches the final in good condition on grass courts, after achieving the largest number of victories on this floor (28) since 2021, equaling the number of Russian Maria Sharapova, who was crowned at Wimbledon in 2004 and 2006.
But she has to be careful against the Czech Republic, the 2019 Roland Garros runner-up, against whom she lost twice this year, in the second round of the Australian Open and the third in Indian Wells.
“I will seek revenge”
“Marquita is a good player and I lost twice against her this year,” Jaber said. So I will seek revenge again, it seems to be working this year.”
Vondrousova, 24, who will return to the top 20 next week in the rankings, missed last year’s tournament due to injury, and another wrist surgery forced her to miss 6 months.
She became the second lowest-ranked player in history to reach the Wimbledon final, after Serena Williams in 2018 when she was ranked 181.
Vondrousova’s journey to the final was not easy either, as she came back from a 4-1 deficit in the decisive third set against American Jessica Pegula, fourth in the world, in the quarter-finals and won.
Prior to this edition, the Czech Republic, the silver holder of the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021, did not pass the second round at Wimbledon in 4 previous posts.
Jaber and Vondrousova are equal 3-3 in their confrontation record, and after the Czech woman won their first meeting in 2015, Jaber won 3 times in a row, before falling twice this year.
She added, nicknamed the “Minister of Happiness” in Tunisia, who will receive two million and 350 thousand pounds (3 million dollars) if she is crowned, “Any of us can win. Whoever controls emotions better and is more ready on the pitch, will win the match.”
After last year becoming the first African and Arab player to reach a Grand Slam final and win the 1,000 Points Tournament (Madrid), Jaber hopes to rise to the top of women’s tennis with the biggest achievement.
