Ons Jabeur reaches Wimbledon final by ending close friend Tatjana Maria’s run

Ons Jabeur ended the magical Wimbledon run of good friend Tatjana Maria and moved one victory away from creating her own fairytale story at the All England Club.

Jabeur edged an entertaining Centre Court encounter 6-2 3-6 6-1 to remain on course to be the first woman from an Arab country and the continent of Africa to win a grand slam.

The third seed proved too good for Maria in the end but the mum-of-two went down fighting after bringing her remarkable 35th appearance at a major to its conclusion in the semi-final stage.

Maria had never made the second week of a grand slam before this summer and only gave birth last April but lost out to first-time finalist Jabeur, who the 34-year-old will likely be backing to win in Saturday’s showpiece.

The friendship of the duo had been well-documented but there was a noticeable lack of eye contact between the “barbeque buddies” before they walked out on to Centre Court.

It was their fourth meeting but first since 2018 and plenty had changed since, with Jabeur ranked second in the world and Maria now a mother to Cecilia in addition to eight-year-old Charlotte.

Eight was the number of minutes it took for Maria to hold her first service game in a clear indicator of how tough a task she faced if she wanted to continue her dream run in SW19.

Jabeur would eventually break at the fifth time of asking and another followed in the seventh game, which saw the Tunisian produce a drop shot on the spin which Maria returned to draw big applause from a near-enough full 15,000 crowd.

Back-to-back aces helped the highest seed left in the competition take the opener in 38 minutes to move one set away from the final.

Maria was no stranger to being behind in the Championships, with four of her five