Ons Jabeur and Marketa Vondrousova advance to Wimbledon final

Ons Jabeur believes her new-found patience helped propel her into another Wimbledon final.

The Tunisian sixth seed, last year's runner-up, came from a set down to beat Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-3 on Centre Court.

Sabalenka, banned from Wimbledon last year over the role of Belarus in the war in Ukraine, was a point from going a set and 5-3 up.

But Jabeur’s rousing comeback spared Wimbledon chiefs an uncomfortable situation.

Instead of a politically-charged clash between Sabalenka and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, Centre Court will host Jabeur against Czech Marketa Vondrousova on Saturday.

Jabeur was devastated after losing to Elena Rybakina in last year’s final, but believes she is a different player 12 months on.

"Maybe the old me would have lost that match today," she said. "Probably 12 months ago, for sure. Maybe also a little bit before, like six months ago. It’s a different player.

"I’m working on myself like crazy. You have no idea what I’m doing. Every time there is something, I’m very tough with myself, try to improve everything. Very impatient sometimes, which is not good.

"Maybe my injuries slowed me down and teach me to be patient and accept what’s going on."

A set and a break down, Jabeur came out fighting on the Sabalenka serve and it finally paid off.

"I was like, honestly, I’m not going to give a s***, I’m just going to go in and hit my return," she added.

"Yeah, it was coming. I was returning much better. She missed some shots that did help me stay in the game. I was fighting every point. We just wait for a little bit of chance sometime to get the game, and that’s what happened."

Sabalenka has reached four consecutive semi-finals but only won one of them, when she took the Australian Open title earlier