Elena Rybakina’s power game has pulled her through the 2022 Wimbledon Championships all fortnight, and now the 23-year-old finds herself in her first Grand Slam final.

No.17 seed Rybakina of Kazakhstan eased past 2019 champion and No.16 seed Simona Halep of Romania 6-3, 6-3 on Centre Court on Thursday afternoon. Rybakina needed only 1 hour and 15 minutes, handing Halep her first loss at Wimbledon since 2018.

Semifinal #1 result: Jabeur makes history by booking Wimbledon final berth

Rybakina will now face another first-time Grand Slam finalist, No.3 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, for the Wimbledon title Saturday. Jabeur leads their head-to-head 2-1, with Rybakina winning their first encounter in 2019 but Jabeur taking both meetings last year.

More milestones: This week, Rybakina became the first player representing Kazakhstan, female or male, to reach a Grand Slam singles semifinal, and she has now gone one step further to break more new ground.

The World No.23 Rybakina, who becomes the youngest Wimbledon finalist since Garbine Muguruza in 2015, is seeking her third career singles title, but her first in two-and-a-half years.

Rybakina won titles at 2019 Bucharest and 2020 Hobart, and she reached four finals in her first five tournaments of a breakthrough 2020. However, Rybakina is 2-6 in finals overall, including a loss to then-World No.1 Ashleigh Barty at Adelaide in January of this year.

Words from the winner: The newest Grand Slam finalist spoke on Centre Court after her latest victory:

Power plays: Rybakina has taken the mantle of “Ace Queen” this season, leading the Hologic WTA Tour in that statistic. She added five aces Thursday, bringing her total for the year to 219.

But Rybakina has exhibited a variety of exceptional shots all tournament, not just the serve. She did so again versus Halep, taking charge from all sectors of the court and hitting 17 winners.

Halep's 14 winners were undone by nine double faults, two of which came while facing break point. The former World No.1 Halep had not lost a set en route to the semifinals, but she could not blunt the fiery hitting by Rybakina, losing a completed match to the Kazakh for the first time.

Key moments: Great groundstroke depth, ending with a winning forehand, gave Rybakina an immediate break for 2-0. Halep fended off the next four break points she faced, but she was never able to pull back on serve, and Rybakina swept to the one-set lead.

Halep hit three double faults in her first service game of the second set, but she finally broke Rybakina at love to level the set at 2-2. However, more aggressive rally play by Rybakina in the next game brought her another break point, where Halep double-faulted again.

Rybakina rolled to victory from there, slamming her fifth ace of the day to close out a hold for 5-3. Halep let a 40-15 lead slip away when serving to stay in the match, and Rybakina went on to convert her first match point with a backhand return winner.