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Ons Jabeur rallied from a set down to keep alive her Wimbledon dream with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over former Grand Slam champion Bianca Andreescu on Centre Court on Saturday.
The Tunisian was outplayed in the opening set on Centre Court and was frustrated throughout by Andreescu’s variety of shots, but the No. 6 seed regained control in the second set with a service break to put her ahead 4-2.
“It was frustrating,” Jabeur, who last year became the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final at the All England Club, said of Andreescu. “Her drop shots and slices were annoying, and I now know what other players feel.”
Andreescu, who won the US Open in 2019, had the edge in the deciding set and was a break ahead, but she gave away her advantage with a double fault moments before rain began to fall and the match was halted while the roof was slid across.
When the match resumed, Jabeur had to work hard to hold serve, saving a break point, and then picked the perfect moment to strike when she broke to love at 4-4.
“I’ve got to thank the rain a little bit, letting me speak to my coach and having a better perspective about the match,” said Jabeur, who also reached last year’s US Open final.
“I didn’t play my best tennis but I wanted to be more aggressive. … [Andreescu] made the mission tough.”
Jabeur closed the match out with an ace and next will face two-time champion Petra Kvitova in the fourth round.
One day after No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka was screaming in frustration in a hard-fought victory over Varvara Gracheva, the Belarusian player was back to her ball-striking best Saturday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Russian Anna Blinkova.
“It was definitely better tennis than yesterday,” Sabalenka said.
In a match between two players who were both barred from competing at the All England Club last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sabalenka made her experience count against an opponent who has never reached the fourth round of a major.
Sabalenka broke Blinkova, the world No. 40, three times to take the first set and then rode her thunderous returns to take a 4-2 lead in the second. Sabalenka then hung tough in the next game, which took more than 14 minutes and featured eight deuces and four break points for Blinkova, for a 5-2 lead.
“It was like a nightmare,” Sabalenka said. “It was a tough game. Somehow I managed to finish that game with a win, but it was crazy and I was super happy to handle myself in that situation.”
The No. 2 seed then clinched the match with a searing ace to set up a fourth-round meeting against No. 21 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, who advanced with a 6-0, 6-4 victory against Dalma Galfi.
Alexandrova’s 19 grass-court wins since the start of 2021 are third most among WTA players in that span.
Defending champion Elena Rybakina had no problems beating Britain’s Katie Boulter 6-1, 6-1 in under an hour, once again relying on a great serve.
From 1-1 in the first set, Rybakina, the No. 3 seed, pelted down aces and service winners and produced an endless barrage of forehand and backhand winners to win the next seven games.
Kvitova, the No. 9 seed, reached the fourth round for only the second time since winning the event in 2013 with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Serbian qualifier Natalija Stevanovic in a rain-disrupted encounter.
It is the seventh time that Kvitova has advanced to the Round of 16 at Wimbledon, tying Agnieszka Radwanska for the second-most among women since 2010.
Following a two-hour rain break late into the second set, Stevanovic, who is ranked 225th, stretched the Czech player to six deuces and three break points, even winning the longest rally of the match by capping off a breathtaking 20-shot exchange with a forehand winner into the corner.
After watching three match points disappear, Kvitova finally triumphed on her fourth attempt.
“It’s been a while since I was in the second week of Wimbledon, so I am very happy,” said the 33-year-old Kvitova, who is on an eight-match win streak after capturing the grass-court title in Berlin.
American Madison Keys, the No. 25 seed who has reached the semifinals of every Grand Slam event except Wimbledon during her career, continued her quest with a dominant 6-4, 6-1 victory against unseeded Marta Kostyuk.
Keys, 28, will next face the winner of the Anastasia Potapova-Mirra Andreeva match that was postponed until Sunday because of rain.
Also reaching the fourth round is Beatriz Haddad Maia, who rolled to an emphatic 6-2, 6-2 victory over Sorana Cirstea just before rain interrupted play.
Haddad Maia became the first Brazilian woman to reach the top 10 in the WTA rankings after her semifinal run at the French Open last month.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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