Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 10, 2023 Tunisia's Ons Jabeur in action during her fourth round match against Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
LONDON (Reuters) -Ons Jabeur set up a quarter-final repeat of last year’s Wimbledon showpiece against Elena Rybakina after crushing out-of-sorts former champion Petra Kvitova 6-0 6-3 in a Centre Court demolition job on Monday.
Her crowd-pleasing variety of slice, drop shot and change of pace and angle left the 2011 and 2014 champion flailing from the start as the Tunisian raced through the first set in 22 minutes.
The ninth-seeded Czech had the briefest of recoveries in the second but it did not last and Jabeur marched on.
"Great, great match. I'm very happy with the performance, playing someone that maybe I don't like to play a lot," Jabeur said. "Hopefully I can keep it going."
Sixth seed Jabeur had to come from a set down against Bianca Andreescu on Saturday but had no such problems on a blustery afternoon as she took command from the start.
Kvitova struggled to deal with the lack of pace coming her way, while her own serves were erratic.
The fans loved the flashback that the hugely popular Jabeur brings to the table, where deception and angle can overcome sheer power, but even they seemed stunned at the one-sided nature of the match.
Kvitova briefly returned to the locker room in an attempt to reset for the second set but her radar remained badly off and she was soon 4-1 down having conceded a double break.
The Czech did, finally, string two games together but her body language suggested that she never really believed she could change the course of the match and Jabeur finished in fitting style by breaking to love.
REVENGE MISSION
Third-seeded Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina, who beat Jabeur in three sets in last year’s final, went through after Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia retired at 4-1 down in the first set with a back injury.
"I'm probably going for my revenge," Jabeur said of facing Rybakina on Wednesday. "It was a difficult final last year. It's going to bring a lot of memories."
Having won the first set a year ago with the glory of being the first African or Arabic woman to take a grand slam title so close, Jabeur said the first few weeks after the defeat were very painful.
"The good thing about it is I know I gave it everything," she said. "But I was really exhausted, emotionally. I wanted to keep pushing but I felt little bit empty.
"Maybe I should have done what my coach kept telling me, to stick more to the plan, to do certain things, even though I was thinking something else in that match.
"This time I'm hoping to play like today and just get the win. You can see she's like 'boom boom' all the time. My priority really to stick 100% to the plan, play more freely, just think about each point and not the result."
The defeat continues Kvitova’s Wimbledon struggles, having not gone past the fourth round at the All England Club since the second of her victories nine years ago.
"She has a very good touch so you never know where the slice is going, if it's a dropshot or it's pretty long one," said the Czech. "But I missed so many balls today.
"I lost pretty quickly, which didn't happen to me often. It was a too-quick match. I've been just destroyed. That's how it is and that's how I take it."
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips; editing by Ken Ferris)
