The ladies title will be won at Wimbledon on Saturday when a new Grand Slam champion will crowned as Elena Rybakina meets Ons Jabeur in what should be a very entertaining final on Centre Court.
These two have seen off some pretty stiff challenge to take their place in this final and one of them will elevate themselves into the elite of the game by walking off with a major title and joining all those greats who have gone before them.
Elena Rybakina
That Elena Rybakina is in a maiden Grand Slam final isn’t a surprise to anyone but there might be a little bit of a shock that it is here because she didn’t stand out as much in the lead up events as she has in previous campaigns. She has always had the game to go well, especially here where her fearsome serve is a weapon that few have on this surface and she has shown that this week when you consider that she has smacked down 49 aces.
Those matches have seen her drop just one set in the whole tournament and although she has only faced one player in the top 50 of the world rankings, when she did face Simona Halep she put in one of the best performances of her career to beat a player who up to that point had looked unstoppable. One concern for Rybekina fans is that she has lost her last four WTA finals and you wonder if nerves will get in the way here.
Ons Jabeur
Unlike Rybakina, Ons Jabeur went into this tournament as one of the favourites to win the event should anything have happened to the overwhelming world number one Iga Swiatek. The Pole bit the dust in the middle of the tournament and Jabeur has been the market leader to win since then. She has carried that tag well as she has become the first Arab and Tunisian player to make it to the final of a Grand Slam.
Jabeur has yet to face anyone in the top 30 in the world in this tournament but she will do that here. She has dropped a set in each of the last two matches but she has rescued the situation on both occasions. Jabeur is known for being one of the most creative players around and although she lacks the firepower of her opponent here, she can take the racquet away in other ways by putting the ball in awkward positions and asking different questions.
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Head-to-head
These two women have played on three previous occasions and it is Jabeur who holds a 2-1 lead. Rybakina won their first meeting before Jabeur levelled the ledger. Their latest meeting was won by Jabeur when the Kazakh retired in the second set. Those meetings were all on a hard court and two of them were last year so they were recent enough to be relevant but this is a different surface. The first two of those matches were last 32 contests while the last one was a semi-final. This will be the first time they have met in a final.
Betting
This should be a really good final because we have what always makes a great occasion and spectacle – a clash in styles. Rybakina has the big serve and the heavy shots while Jabeur has the better movement and the touch and creativity so if you are betting on this final you are betting either for the big hitter who might make a few errors forcing it or the creative player who could get blown off the court before she gets the chance to impose her style on the game.
I’m not going to bet on either because the one thing we can’t allow for is nerves and you would imagine both ladies will have them. That makes me move to the side markets where I’ll use those potential nerves to my advantage and take over 5.5 breaks of serve. Rybakina has been brilliant on serve but Jabeur has broken in 47 of the service games she has faced in this tournament. She has dropped serve a number of times too. There is every chance this final goes three sets based on their previous meetings and the two that have already gone the distance have yielded 10 and seven breaks of serve. There had been four breaks of serve in a set and a half in the one Rybakina retired in too so I fancy another half a dozen breaks of serve here.
Tips
Back Over 5.5 breaks of serve for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with BetVictor
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