Jabeur beats shaky Garcia at U.S. Open to reach 2nd Grand Slam final
Ons Jabeur reached a second consecutive Grand Slam title match without needing to produce her best tennis Thursday night, taking full advantage of a shaky showing by Caroline Garcia to win their U.S. Open semifinal 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 U.S. Open in the professional era, which dates to 1968.
Jabeur will try to collect her first major championship on Saturday when she meets the winner of the semifinal between No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland and No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
Take it in, <a href="https://twitter.com/Ons_Jabeur?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Ons_Jabeur</a>!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USOpen</a> <a href="https://t.co/bIa71zuAaG">pic.twitter.com/bIa71zuAaG</a>
None of the last four players in the women's bracket has ever made it to the final in New York.
The same goes for the men's semifinalists who will play Friday: No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain vs. No. 22 Frances Tiafoe of the United States, and No. 5 Casper Ruud of Norway vs. No. 27 Karen Khachanov of Russia.
On this 75-degree evening under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Jabeur was not required to be at her best, but she was still rather good.
She finished with 21 winners — after one that was aided by a fortuitous bounce off the top of the net, Jabeur put up a hand to apologize, then blew a kiss to the sky — and just 15 unforced errors. She delivered eight aces. She went 4 for 4 on break chances and never faced a single one.
When Jabeur went up a break in the second to lead 3-1 merely 40 minutes in, the match was not yet won, but it might as well have been.
But
