History makers Ons Jabeur and Elena Rybakina will meet in the Wimbledon final after the pair claimed impressive victories in the last four.
Tunisian third seed Jabeur became the first Arab player to reach a Grand Slam singles final in the Open era with a 6-2 3-6 6-1 win over Tatjana Maria.
Rybakina then became the first singles player from Kazakhstan to reach a major final with a 6-3 6-3 dismantling of former champion Simona Halep.
The two will meet on Saturday.
Jabeur has become a favourite at Wimbledon, and she and good friend Maria thrilled the crowd with an impressive display of shotmaking.
The pair are good friends but were rivals on Centre Court, before sharing a long and loving embrace at the net as Jabeur secured victory.
While Rybakina’s progression has gone under the radar, she outmuscled former world number one Halep with relative ease.
Born in Moscow, she has represented Kazakhstan since 2018 and will now bid to become the first player from there to win a major singles trophy.
Rybakina stuns Halep
At 23, Rybakina is the youngest Wimbledon finalist since Garbine Muguruza, then 21, achieved the feat in 2015 and she played with an ease that seemed beyond Halep.
As the only player left with any Grand Slam final experience, Halep was the heavy favourite at a venue where she has won 12 straight matches.
However, she was overpowered from the off by Rybakina, who used her big serve and equally giant groundstrokes to wrongfoot Halep.
The Romanian faced at least one break point in each of her first five service games, let down by a first-serve rate of 53% and nine double faults.
Rybakina showed no sign of nerves, bringing up three set points in the first with an 118mph ace, before converting on a long Halep forehand.
Her momentum continued in the second set, with Halep saving a break point in her first service game before coughing up back-to-back double faults to leave her in serious trouble.
Halep managed to get the break back and did it to love, stringing together three points for the first time in the match, but another double fault in the next game handed the lead back to Rybakina.
From then, Halep’s shoulders dropped, and Rybakina needed no further encouragement, again racing through her service games to put Halep under pressure.
The frustration was evident when Halep, serving to stay in the match at 5-3, went from 40-15 up to deuce on yet another double fault. She stood for a long time, leaning on her racquet, hand on her thigh as the crowd attempted to urge her on.
However, a wonderful return of serve from Rybakina caught the line to stun both Halep and the crowd. (BBC)
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