Wimbledon News: Ons Jabeur's heartfelt gesture and Aussie pair of Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell enter the final

World number two faced up against her close friend Tatjana Maria and won 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. After a touching embrace at the conclusion of the three-set thriller, Jabeur made sure Maria received the respect she earned from the Wimbledon crowd.

As Tatjana Maria prepared to leave, Onus Jabeur grabbed her and dragged her into the middle of the court while pointing at her and receiving a loud round of applause from the audience.

Post-match Comments by Ons Jabeur

“Tatjana deserves a lot of respect,” said Jabeur. “The way she plays, the way she fights. If I didn’t see her two kids, I would say she never had them”.“It’s really inspiring for a lot of women. I have a lot of respect for her. If she won today, she would have deserved it 100 percent.

“After all, it’s just a tennis match. We didn’t go to war or anything. It was amazing, great.”

Australian pair enter the second major final of 2022

Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell's dominated their Wimbledon semi-final against top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury on Thursday. They sealed a championship match spot at the grass-court Grand Slam. Ebden and Purcell saved five match points for their opponents in the third-set tie-break before winning 3-6, 6-7(1), 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-2, number one Court. The 14th seeds used their third-set victory to take control of the second half of the grueling three-hour and 59-minutes encounter. They broke serve four times in the match and set up their second primary season's final. 

The 14th-seeded Aussie pair had never previously advanced beyond the third round at the All England Club. Ebden and Purcell saved three match points in their opening round and defeated three seeded teams to reach the final. In addition, the Australian pair had defeated Ram and Salisbury in a Grand Slam semi-final this year in the last four at January's Australian Open. 

The upcoming final will mark Ebden's second career Grand Slam men's doubles final and a third for Purcell. Ebden and Purcell have also become the 23rd and 24th Australians to qualify for a Wimbledon men's doubles final in the Open era. They are the first to achieve that in seven years and the first all-Australian team to do so since Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde won their sixth title in 2000. The winning duo will face defending champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic in Saturday's final.