A historic final at the All-England Club will take place Saturday afternoon as Ons Jabeur and Elena Rybakina meet to take home the coveted Venus Rosewater Dish. Wimbledon will be the crowning glory for one of these women who are each looking to capture their first major title. History will be made either way as Jabeur is looking to be the first player women's player from Africa to win a major while Rybakina would be the first Kazakh player to win it all.
Let's take a look at each of their paths to the final and breakdown the match from a stylistic standpoint.
Jabeur's Road To The Final
The third-seeded Tunisian rolled in her first three matches against Mirjam Bjorklund, Katarzyna Kawa, and Diane Parry, having not dropped more than four games in a set at any point in those first three matches. Elise Mertens pushed the three seed, holding four set points in the first-set tiebreaker before going down 7-6, 6-4.
From there, Marie Bouzkova and Tatjana Maria each took a set off Jabeur before the Tunisian bounced back to close out the match. In her last three matches, you can see that the quality of Jabeur's matches and opponents have gone up, and she's finding it more difficult to get straightforward wins.
Rybakina's Road To The Final
Despite only going three sets once, the Kazakhs road to the final has been anything but straightforward. A brutal draw which saw her face the likes of Coco Vandeweghe, Bianca Andreescu, Qinwen Zheng, and Petra Martic before getting to the last eight.
Her match against Martic was the closest score-wise, winning 7-5, 6-3 with her previous three matches before that each having at least one tiebreak. The 17 seed was pegged as a potential threat to go out early with Andreescu awaiting in round two given the Canadian's form leading up to Wimbledon.
Rybakina's first dropped set came at the hands of back-to-back quarterfinalist, Ajla Tomlanjovic, before finishing her road with a masterful performance against Simona Halep.
Matchup Breakdown
The thing to watch for here is how Rybakina starts early. In her match against Halep, the Kazakh played a near flawless match to take out the former Wimbledon champion. To expect that kind of level in the final right away seems premature to say the least.
Jabeur's weapons and variety will test the patience of Rybakina more often then what Halep had to offer. In terms of variety, the drop shot from Jabeur seems to have been quite effective over this fortnight and that will force the Kazakh to move forward or to try and be effective at the net.
For Rybakina, her bread and butter, the serve into her forehand will be her way to try and shorten points. In extended rallies, the edge will go to the Tunisian due to her consistency and variety.
Whoever shakes off the early nerves will surely be the favorite to start but if both women find themselves in the match, it will surely be an entertaining one from start to finish. Jabeur pegged herself to win Wimbledon when asked for a prediction from herself this year by the WTA back in January. She's one win away from that and despite her shakiness over the last couple of rounds, we think she gets it done by the slimmest of margins.
Prediction: Jabeur in three sets