Ons Jabeur won her second Grand Slam title match in a row. There is a time and a place.
Ons Jabeur reached a second consecutive Grand Slam title match without needing to produce her best tennis Thursday night, taking full advantage of a shaky showing by her opponent, and winning their US Open semifinal match 6-1, 6-3.
It will be the first time that an African woman will play in a US Open final since 1968.
"After Wimbledon, there was a lot of pressure on me, and I'm relieved that I can back up my results,'' he said.
The winner of the semifinal between Iga Swiatek of Poland and Aryna Sabalenka ofBelarus will face off in the final. The last four players have never made it to the final.
With four-time major champion Arantxanchez Vicario in her guest box, Jabeur improved to 6-0 in semifinals this season and earned her tour-leading 92nd victory in all since the start of 2021. In this week's quarterfinals, she defeated the player who eliminated Serena Williams.
Two months ago, she became the first African woman and Arab woman to get to a Wimbledon's final, but she lost to Elena.
After lying on her back in the middle of the court, she got a second chance at a trophy, because she lost in the semifinals.
Even though she wasn't required to be at her best, she was still quite good.
After one of her 21 winners was aided by a bounce off the top of the net, she apologized and blew a kiss to the sky. She was able to deliver eight ace. She never faced a break chance.
The match was not yet won, but it might as well have been after the break when Jabeur went up a break and led by three goals.
When you consider that she leads the tour in ace in 2022, it makes sense that she chose to serve after winning the coin toss. But the 28-year-old player from France got broken right away, thanks to four mistakes of various sorts -- a netted forehand, a wide forehand, a long backhand and, most concerning, what should have been an easy put-away volley she barely managed
It wasn't a good start for the 17th-seeded Garcia, who hadn't lost a set in her previous 13 matches, and hadn't lost a set at the US Open. That included a win over American Coco Gauff.
There were no signs of the confident, crisp, attacking play that was displayed against Gauff, and since the start of June, the team had 31 match wins and three titles.
The series between the two players began more than a decade ago and continued into Thursday's semifinal. The head-to-head record between the two men is now seven wins in a row.
The style of mixing spins and speeds, of throwing in drop shots to keep foes off balance, was not shown much. At times, he seemed content to keep balls in play, sending sliced backhands deep to the middle of the court and waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. The pattern of unforced errors off the rackets of the two players would continue.
"I was mentally prepared,'' he said.
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