"If I could exchange this match with last year's...," said Jabeur, 28, who lost the 2022 final after winning the first set.

"I'm very happy with this performance. The match was very emotionally charged, especially because it serves really well. It's frustrating when you play back, but I'm glad I did everything: yelling, getting angry, calming down, refocusing. I hope to manage my emotions like that in the next matches," she added.

She will try Thursday against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2nd) to qualify again for the final on London grass. If she succeeds, she would become the first player to reach two Wimbledon finals since Serena Williams (2018-2019).

But if she has played two Grand Slam finals (Wimbledon and US Open 2022), the Tunisian has not yet been crowned.

Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina against Tusienne Ons Jabeur in the Wimbledon quarterfinals on July 12, 2023 in London © SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

The first player from the Arab world to reach the quarters of a Major (Australia 2020), and at Wimbledon (2021), she could become the second woman from the African continent to have played three Grand Slam finals after South Africa's Amanda Coezter.

On Wednesday against Rybakina, her first task was to tame the serve of the great Kazakh (1.84m).

She started this quarter with the record of 342 aces since the beginning of the season, including 26 at Wimbledon in four matches.

Since losing the very first set of the tournament, Rybakina had never been broken again and had to defend only seven break balls.

Jabeur shattered those stats by taking his serve five times and offering himself a total of nine break balls.

In the first set, the Kazakh broke to take a 3-1 lead, but immediately conceded her stake without winning a single point.

Very few points were played in the first eleven games: six of them were won blank (including one break for Rybakina and one for Jabeur) and in the other five, only five points were played.

Leading 6-5 after being broken for the second time in the set, Rybakina saved a set ball before equalizing at 6-6 to take the set to the deciding game.

There, she broke away 6 points to 3 and pocketed the set on her third ball of the set.

"The first set should have turned in my favor! Jabeur said. But I doubted a little, I yelled at my coach telling him + you told me to play like this and watch!+ But I believed in this game plan and I continued to apply it, "commented Jabeur who, faced with the power of Rybakina, notably opposed his demonic ball touch.

Tunisia's Ons Jabeur and Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina after their Wimbledon quarter-final won by Jabeur on July 12, 2023 in London © SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

In the second set, only one break was achieved, in the final game by Jabeur who thus equalized at a set everywhere.

As in the 2022 final, the duel between the two players would be decided in three sets.

Last year, Jabeur won the first before losing the next two. This year, the opposite has happened.

© 2023 AFP