Reaching your first Grand Slam quarter-final at the age of 23 and on your 15^th appearance at a major seems like a natural career progression for many a player out there. But for Aryna Sabalenka, that exact path often times felt like a never-ending odyssey as she tried and failed on multiple occasions to replicate her success at the smaller events on the sport’s biggest stages.

Now, the Belarusian is not only through to her first Grand Slam quarter-final, she has blasted into the semi-finals with a commanding 6-4, 6-3 victory over Tunisian No.21 seed Ons Jabeur at Wimbledon. She certainly feels this achievement has been a long time coming.

“I was struggling on the Grand Slams with all emotions going through. After every slam I was so disappointed about myself that I can't handle this pressure,” confessed Sabalenka on Tuesday.

“I actually thought that I will never make it to the second week. We worked a lot with my psychologist and with my coach. I’m really happy that here in Wimbledon I'm in the second week, I'm still in the tournament, and I still have this opportunity to win a slam. I will do everything I can to reach my goal.”

Sabalenka, who leads the tour with 34 match-wins this season, showed great poise against Jabeur, firing 27 winners against 20 unforced errors despite deploying a high-risk game of powerful shot-making.

The Belarusian world No.4, owner of 10 career titles, is proud of how well she handled her first Grand Slam quarter-final experience and will be looking to carry that calmness into her last-four showdown with Czech No.8 seed Karolina Pliskova.

“The only thing I was thinking about is my game, to stay focused and to fight for every point, for every opportunity I had,” said Sabalenka, who grew up admiring Serena Williams’ ability to dominate on the court.

“Today it's surprised me but I didn't feel that pressure of being in the quarter-final for the first time. I was just enjoying the atmosphere and enjoying my game, just doing everything I can to win this match. So it was great performance for me.”

Sabalenka worked with her psychologist to gain belief in her abilities at the Grand Slams and accept the pressure that comes with performing at high-stakes events.

“It's easy things, but it's really not easy to do actually,” she added.

Jabeur, who now trails Sabalenka 1-2 head-to-head, felt like her opponent “played the match of her life”.

“She served well from the beginning till the end, which is kind of hard for a tennis player to find a solution for in the middle of the match,” said the world No.24.

“I think she didn't make a lot of mistakes. But I'm honestly proud of myself for trying and being positive the whole way because it's not easy to accept that someone is playing good from beginning and the end of the match.

“Today she deserved to win and I hope she can go as far as she wants to. I know she's been waiting for this for a long time.”

Jabeur was competing in her first Wimbledon quarter-final and second at a major. Her daunting route at these Championships saw her knock out Venus Williams, Garbiñe Muguruza and Iga Swiatek before falling to Sabalenka and she says she walks away with lessons learned from the whole Fortnight.

“This gives me the opportunity to work even harder, be ready for those kind of matches. The good news is I have things to work on. I'm very positive for the future,” said the 26-year-old.

Jabeur is the first Arab woman to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals and she’s looking to become the first Arab player in the Open era to make it to a major semi-final. She became a fan favourite at SW19 with her flamboyant playing style and never-say-die attitude and has stepped up in her role as a trailblazer for her country, her region, and the Arab world.

“I know that since 2011, since I won the junior Roland-Garros, I know that there are many girls [back home] wanting to play tennis and dreaming more. I feel like I've been carrying a great message trying to represent my country as best as I can,” she said. “I think right now they are dreaming even bigger and they want to be here, they want to follow my steps. I hope I am giving the right example for them.”

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