By Erik Gudris | @ATNTennis | Monday July 10, 2023
For Ons Jabeur, her shotmaking today will be one she will savor. For Petra Kvitova, her performance today will be one she will want to forget.
The No. 6 seed Jabeur of Tunisia raced through her fourth round against two-time Wimbledon champion and No. 9 seed Kvitova 6-0, 6-3 to reach the last eight.
Awaiting Jabeur next is No. 3 seed and defending Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in a highly awaited rematch of last year’s final.
Jabeur is looking forward to the challenge of once again facing Rybakina who she lost to in three sets in the 2022 Wimbledon final. Jabeur has said that losing that match was extremely tough for her and that she needed a long time to recover from the loss.
“It was a difficult final last year, it’s going to bring back a lot of memories. I’m hoping to play like I did today, because she’s an amazing player, she’s like boom boom all the time (laughs), there’s no mercy with her so we will see what happens,” Jabeur said after her match on facing Rybakina.
Before Jabeur could get the rematch with Rybakina she had to get through Kvitova first. Before the match, that looked like a tall order as Kvitova led the overall head to head 4-1. Kvitova, who a few weeks before Wimbledon, won a grass court title in Berlin and looked poised to possibly make a deep run at her favorite tournament.
Yet at the start of the match, it was clear Jabeur was locked into her all-court game while Kvitova was not at her best. Jabeur broke the big-serving Kvitova right away. As Kvitova starting racking up unforced errors, her opponent started producing a highlight reel of memorable winners.
With an incredible flick backhand winner, Jabeur soon broke again for 3-0.
Kvitova continuing struggling with her serve. A few games later, she found herself down 0-40. Jabeur, full confidence, broke again with a perfect backhand drop shot return winner that left Kvitova and the crowd stunned.
After 22 minutes, Jabeur wrapped up the set 6-0 with a lot of help from Kvitova’s 13 unforced errors.
Kvitova, hoping to reset her fortune, left Centre Court for an extended bathroom break. When she came back and resumed she managed to finally hold serve to start the second set.
The onslaught wasn't complete, however. Jabeur would break again later in the third game when Kvitova netted a series of returns. Jabeur later jumped out to a commanding 4-1 lead with yet another service break converted with a potent cross court winner.
Kvitova did manage to get one break back and stay in touch a game later for 3-4. Yet by now Jabeur sensed victory was hers and would not let her opponent have any chance of a comeback.
Jabeur won the final eight points of the lopsided contest, securing the 6-0, 6-3 win in just over an hour.
The final stats tell the story as Jabeur played a near perfect match with 17 winners and 11 unforced errors compared to only 4 winners and 26 unforced errors from Kvitova.
After the match, Kvitova revealed that actually did not place too much expectation on herself to make another deep run at Wimbledon. Yet she admitted she just could find her game today when she needed it.
“You know, I was having a good grass season, but still, you know, fighting here in Wimby. I didn't really put pressure on me, to be honest. Maybe in the previous matches but not really today. It was I felt like a 50/50 for today's match, and then it was pretty quickly the other side. Didn't feel it today.
“But, I mean, anyway, it was a too-quick match. I've been just destroyed. That's how it is and that's how I take it.”