Fifty one weeks after a heartbroken Ons Jabeur trudged off Wimbledon’s Centre Court with tears streaking down her face after a second successive defeat in the final, the tormented Tunisian was left to digest another painful loss on Saturday.
Jabeur’s long cherished dream to hold aloft the Venus Rosewater Dish was dashed for at least another year following a brutal 6-1 7-6(4) defeat by Elina Svitolina in the third round.
The popular Tunisian could have been 2-0 up right at the start as she had a break point in Svitolina’s opening service game and a game point in the next. Instead it was Ukrainian 21st seed Svitolina who struck the killer blows early to open up a 2-0 lead and she never moved her eye off the ball as she romped through to bag the first set after Jabeur tamely netted a service return on set point.
The 10th seed managed to put up more of a fight in the second set and even had set point at 6-5 up on Svitolina’s serve. But the nightmare memories Jabeur is starting to collect from Centre Court will have another addition as her forehand down the line fell millilitres wide and Svitolina grabbed that reprieve to get out of trouble.
A backhand error on match point condemned Jabeur to her earliest defeat at the All England Club for five years, leaving Svitolina to lap up the applause from the crowd which included her husband Gael Monfils. She will next face China’s Wang Xinyu.
