Status: 07/07/2022 4:56 p.m
Tatjana Maria held out for a long time against Ons Jabeur in the Wimbledon semifinals. But in the end her good friend from Tunisia won.
34-year-old Maria lost the first Grand Slam semi-final of her tennis career 2-6, 6-3, 1-6. World number two Jabeur is now also the favorite in the final. On Saturday she meets the winner of the second semi-final duel between Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) and Simona Halep (Romania).
Jabeur: “She has to grill for me”
Jabeur is the first Arab player in a Grand Slam final. She is good friends with the Maria family. “It was difficult to run after her balls. She has to grill for me to make up for all my running on the pitch,” said Jabeur, laughing.
Immediately after her match point, she brought Maria next to her to give her the cheers of the audience. “I definitely wanted to share that moment with her in the end, she’s such a huge inspiration to all the players including me. I still can’t believe she came back with two kids and made it through.”
Jabeur lets Maria go
The fact that it was no ordinary match for both players became apparent in the early stages. As usual, Maria relied on her unorthodox style of play with many undercut balls also on the forehand, Jabeur got involved in the slice duel, the first game alone lasted eight minutes. Strong nerves, Maria fended off three breakballs and got the 1:0.
But Jabeur kept the command, let Maria run with stop balls and slowly increased the tempo. The winner of the preparatory tournament in Berlin won three games in a row. Both players smiled when Jabeur lost a spectacular point after a pirouette half-volley. But the favorite was serious. Ice cold, she showed Maria the limits and converted the first set point after only 38 minutes through a mistake by her opponent.
Ons Jabeur in action
Image: afp
Comeback in the second set
Maria had already lost the first round three times in the tournament and had always come back with great willingness to run. As she saved two break points at 1-1, she threw a fist at her box, where husband and trainer Charles-Edouard applauded.
For the first time, Maria was also able to put pressure on Jabeur when she served and used her first break ball straight away. Jabeur showed nerves, made more and more mistakes in addition to magic balls, Maria pulled away 4-1. Maria missed a first set ball when the score was 5:2 and serve Jabeur, with her own service she was able to celebrate after a failed stop by her opponent after a total of 76 minutes.
Fast break in round three
The decisive round started extremely badly, Jabeur made the early break with a passing ball – and suddenly was unstoppable. When Maria conceded the 0:4 due to an unnecessary mistake on the net, the currently best lawn player in the world kissed her finger and looked happily at the sky. Maria brought her own serve one last time – and then she was beaten.
626,000 euros bonus for Maria
Maria collects the equivalent of 626,000 euros for the biggest success of her career. The mother of two could not reach the Wimbledon final as the sixth German tennis player after Cilly Aussem, Hilde Krahwinkel, Steffi Graf, Sabine Lisicki and Angelique Kerber.
Source: sportschau.de