Iga Swiatek will face Ons Jabeur in the US Open women’s final after the No. 1-ranked player came back to defeat No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka in the second semifinal on Thursday night.
Swiatek grabbed the last four games, and 16 of the last 20 points, to beat Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
The first step for Swiatek to turn things around came when she headed to the locker room after the first set — to use the bathroom and think about what to adjust on court.
“I needed to get it together,” said Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland who already owns two trophies from the French Open’s red clay, including one this year, but never had been past the fourth round on New York’s hard courts.
Sabalenka, meanwhile, dropped to 0-3 in Slam semifinals for her career and 12-11 in three-setters this year. She broke for a 4-2 lead in the third set — and 17 minutes later it was over.
“She was just going for it,” said Sabalenka, who wore large blue mirrored sunglasses and a black cap pulled low to her news conference. “She was hitting every ball and putting me under pressure and playing really aggressively.”
Swiatek has emerged as a dominant figure in women’s tennis this year, with a 37-match winning streak and six titles. If she can defeat Jabeur, Swiatek will become the first woman since Angelique Kerber to collect two major championships in one season.
Jabeur, meanwhile, is headed to her second consecutive Grand Slam final after taking advantage of a shaky showing by Caroline Garcia to win their semifinal match at Flushing Meadows 6-1, 6-3.
The No. 5-seeded Jabeur, a 28-year-old from Tunisia, was the runner-up at Wimbledon in July and now will be the first African woman to participate in a final at the US Open in the professional era, which dates to 1968.
“Feels more real, to be honest with you, just to be in the final again. At Wimbledon, I was kind of just living the dream, and I couldn’t believe it,” Jabeur said after ending No. 17 Garcia’s 13-match winning streak, which included a victory over 18-year-old American Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals. “Now just, I hope, I’m getting used to it. … Now maybe I know what to do.”
“After Wimbledon, [there was] a lot of pressure on me,” Jabeur said following a win that took barely more than an hour, “and I’m really relieved that I can back up my results.”
With four-time major champion Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in her guest box — they traded thumbs-up signals at match’s end — Jabeur improved to 6-0 in semifinals this season and earned her tour-leading 92nd victory in all since the start of 2021. No. 91 came when she defeated Ajla Tomljanovic, who eliminated Serena Williams in the third round.
To Jabeur’s surprise, and delight, she heard her quarterfinal victory over Tomljanovic on Tuesday was drawing viewers back home, even though it was on TV the same night as a Champions League game between Juventus and Paris St. Germain.
“In Tunisia, it’s all about soccer,” she said. “But people were not watching the game, they were watching my game, which is impressive to me.”
That’s part of the way in which she is changing views about tennis in her country — and on a continent.
