LONDON | It took one of the tournament favorites to up the ante at the crucial moment to send Bianca Andreescu out of the All England Club on Saturday.

But despite that 3-6, 6-4 and 6-4 loss to Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who is sixth seeded at Wimbledon, the Canadian has sent a nice message to the tennis world in recent days: she’s not far away from the game that propelled them to the top of the world rankings.

The roof of the iconic stadium was opened for this match between the 2019 US Open winner and last year’s finalist on English turf after spending another day partly in the rain.

Under the gray sky, in front of the somewhat empty ranks for a good duel looming (Was it because Carlos Alcaraz, who was in action earlier, had postponed tea time?), Andreescu quickly shone.

The Canadian was aggressive, accurate on serve and taking advantage of her rival’s generosity. In the fourth game of the opening set, she defeated the Tunisian with an offensive return that Jabeur netted.

The world 50th was full of confidence and offered herself a set point with a backhand effect so close to the ground that her competitor couldn’t do anything about it.

Then she completed that first set in 30 minutes, best time, to the applause of the English, who appreciated her performance.

Another release

And there, since Andreescu was Andreescu, the duel began. As Jabeur rediscovered the creativity that makes his game so good, the former WTA fourth-slugger began to multiply the mistakes.

As in the first round against the Hungarian Anna Bondar.

As in the second round, in this fierce fight against the Ukrainian Anhelina Kalenina, the 26th seeded number.

In fact, she’s done it on and off throughout her career.

Jabeur broke the equalizer to make it 2-2 by outpacing the 23-year-old Ontario with powerful and accurate shots.

Photo credit: AFP Photo

Andreescu tried to maintain the 5:3 score, but his opponent really wanted the third set. The audience also heard the loud applause that accompanied the announcement of the score.

Until next time

But as in his best moments on the track, Andreescu regained his shine after some adversity. She beat Jabeur to lead 3-1 in the final set… before the Tunisian retaliated.

Then came the rain that seemed inevitable under cloudy skies and the roof closed down the middle, chasing the two rivals into the dressing room for about forty minutes.

And when they came back, Andreescu offered up two break points to the cheers of the growing crowd (and cheered up by a few Pimms?) waiting for them to make waves. But Jabeur erased them both to secure the score.

The two players then traded serves to make it 4-4 before the Canadian committed three unforced errors and a double fault to give the world sixth a crucial break as she took her chance at the win.