Camila Vega
The women’s singles semifinal at Wimbledon 2022 was decided today, as expected, and Ons Jabeur advanced to the final. With this victory, she became the first African and Arab to reach this prestigious tournament’s final.
Here’s how the match against Tatjana Maria went and the details of her victory.
Ons Jabeur making history as an African at Wimbledon 2022
The women’s semifinals went as planned, unlike the men’s, which will only have one match owing to Rafael Nadal’s retirement on Thursday, July 7. Regarding Jabeur’s match against Maria, the stats were impressive, but even more so the points and shots they played. Each player ran at least 2 km along the court and between slices, lobs, drop shots and smashes: there were all kinds of shots and show between these two players.
Jabeur hit an incredible 39 winners and won 44% of points received in this match that went to a deciding set. However, although she lost the second set 3-6, in the last set she was forceful, and it resulted in 6-1. At the end of the game, Jabeur grabbed Maria’s hand and made the whole stadium celebrate with her as if she had been the winner. In addition, in the post-match interview, more details of Maria’s close relationship with Jabeur were revealed.
“Tatjana deserves a lot of respect,” Jabeur said. “The way she plays, the way she fights. If I didn’t see her two sons, I’d say she never had them. She’s really inspiring to a lot of women. I have a lot of respect for her. If she had won today, she would have deserved it 100 percent. After all, it’s just a tennis match. We didn’t go to war or anything. It was amazing, great.” Indeed, Maria is the first mother to reach the Wimbledon semifinal.
On the other hand, the Tunisian mentioned that “last year I told my mental coach: I will come back next year for the title. I love everything here, the atmosphere and everything”. Tennis fever is now endemic in her home country, with Jabeur known as “the minister of happiness”.
The final also co-occurs with the celebration of Eid al-Adha, and Jabeur said, “It’s always about Tunisia in some way, but I want to go bigger, to inspire many more generations. Tunisia is connected to the Arab world, it’s connected to the African continent. It’s not like Europe or any other country. I want to see more players, not just Tunisian, but African, Arab players on tour. I think we didn’t believe enough at a certain point that we can do that. Now I’m just trying to show that. Hopefully people are getting inspired.”
Maria was happy for Jabeur, at least as much as possible in such circumstances, describing her friend as an “amazing role model” who is “a great person”, and that “she really deserves it.” In addition, her children call her “Aunt Ons”.
Here is the complete post-game interview:
Without a doubt, having a mother as well as an Arab and African woman reach the Wimbledon semi-finals and finals is both important and motivating. Jabeur will meet Kazakhstan’s Rybakina this Saturday to define her Wimbledon 2022 crown. Surely, we will be hearing a lot more from her, and perhaps she will fulfill her dream of lifting the trophy of the oldest tournament in the world of Tennis.
