Wimbledon 2022 women’s semi-finals: Ons Jabeur v Tatjana Maria – live!

In the 22 women’s Grand Slam finals since 2017, there’ve been 25 different finalists and 13 different champions; by way of comparison, the first tennis I remember watching was in 1984, and in the 22 majors from then onwards, there were seven finalists and five winners. That change is absolutely ridiculous, in good ways – loads of great players, little idea what’s gonna happen – and bad ways – the best players don’t meet often enough, it’s hard to now who the best players even are . But what’s unarguable is that women’s tennis is the least predictable sport in the world.

So, though on the face of things it looks easy to predict what’s going to happen today – wins for Ons Jabeur and Simon Halep – the titles won by Emma Raducanu, Barbora Krejcikova and Bianca Andreescu, along with the finals reached by Danielle Collins, Jennifer Brady and Marketa Vondrousova, tell us that we don’t know anything. Making the final is about playing well on the day, not being good in general.

Nor are Jabeur and Halep impregnable. The former is under colossal pressure as the highest-ranked player left and first Arab woman to reach this stage of a major. And, though she’s absolutely loving the show, it won’t take much for the pressure to get big on her – especially against an opponent who’s also a close friend and for whom today represents the chance of a lifetime.

Halep, meanwhile, is in glorious form, but remains underpowered against the next generation. Amanda Anisimova only played properly for five minutes yesterday, more than enough time to get the 2019 champ rattled, while Elena Rybakina, now settled into latter-stage life, is just as powerful if not more so and be expected to perform better than she did against Ajla Tomljanovic.

This is going to be good.

Play: 1.30pm BST