Jaber and Serena from Tunisia reached the semi-finals of the tournament in Eastbourne in doubles

Tunisian Anas Jaber and American Serena Williams reached the semi-finals of the International Tennis Championship in Eastbourne on grass.

This comes after they beat Japan’s Choko Aoyama and Taiwan’s Chan Hao-cheng 6-2, 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

This is the second match for the 40-year-old American star after a year-long absence due to injury, as she returned on Tuesday with a 2-6, 6-3 win over Czech Marie Bozkova and Spaniard Sara Soribes Tormo. , 13-11, at the start of her preparations for the English Wimbledon Championship, the third Grand Slam tournament starting next Monday.

Serena, who won Wimbledon seven times, most recently in 2016, performed better than in the first match, especially in her reaction to the net and serve.

Her mutual understanding was also better with her partner Jaber, the third in the world, who had never played with her before this tournament, despite the many direct mistakes of both.

Speaking after the match, Serena Serena, a 23-year-old career Grand Slam athlete, said: “Today we played better together, although yesterday (Tuesday) we played very well. But today Anas really supported me. at her and saying, “Wow, that’s great.”).

For her part, Jaber said: “I didn’t even know we were already in the semi-finals, things are going very fast, but it’s great for us.”

Serena and Jaber will face Poland’s Magda Linate and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic in the semifinals.

Participation in the tournament in Eastbourne is part of Serena’s preparation for Wimbledon, which has fallen to 1204 in the world rankings, and regained the rhythm of the game after she missed the competition due to a thigh injury during last year’s first round Wimbledon match against Belarusian Alexandra Sansovich. , the hundredth in the world, and she said goodbye in tears.

Serena was ranked eighth at the time.

As soon as her return was announced on social networks, Wimbledon organizers did not hesitate to give her an invitation card.

In addition to winning the English Championship seven times, she reached the final twice, in 2018 and 2019.

Since winning her last major title in Australia in 2017, the American is still looking for her 24th title to match the Australian Margaret Court name record, knowing she has since lost four Grand Slam finals (Wimbledon 2018 and 2019, USA 2018). and 2019).

Source: AFP

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