All posts tagged: Jabeur

Naomi Osaka Advances As Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur Dumped Out Of Qatar Open

Published by Webster

Naomi Osaka battled into the last 16 of the Qatar Open on Tuesday but Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur crashed to surprise second-round exits with straight-sets defeats. Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka brushed past Croatia’s Petra Martic 6-3, 7-6 (11/9), continuing a comeback from maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter in July. Osaka grasped control with a break in the fourth game of the opening set. She broke twice more in the second set — either side of dropping her own serve — only to blow a chance to close out the match at 5-4. Martic threatened to force a third set as she won the first four points of the tie-break, but Osaka then saved four set points before her opponent double-faulted down match point. It is the first WTA tournament in almost two years at which Osaka has won back-to-back matches. She goes on to play Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, who knocked out fourth seed Jabeur 6-3, 6-2. Tsurenko won nine straight games from 3-1 down in the first set …

Shaky Ons Jabeur Survives First-Round Test At Australian Open

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Second seed Ons Jabeur joked that her coach was “going to kill me” after her quest for a maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open began with a shaky three-set victory on Tuesday. The Tunisian eventually saw off Tamara Zidansek 7-6 (10/8), 4-6, 6-1 in an unconvincing win littered with unforced errors. Jabeur was runner-up at both Wimbledon and the US Open last year but had to grind past the Slovenian world number 98 under the roof on Rod Laver Arena in a 2hr 17min battle. “It was a tough match honestly,” Jabeur told reporters. “Just not the way I wanted to play. But I kept fighting.” Jabeur has set herself the twin targets in 2023 of becoming the first Arab and African woman to win one of the four tennis majors and toppling Iga Swiatek from the number one ranking. But the 28-year-old, who had strapping on her left knee, suffered early nerves as she took to Melbourne Park’s centre court for the night session on day two. Jabeur dropped her opening service …

Two-Time Finalist Ons Jabeur Primed For Grand Slam Breakthrough

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File photo of Ons Jabeur.© AFP World number two Ons Jabeur said on Saturday her pair of 2022 Grand Slam finals have only increased her desire to finally lift a major trophy. The Tunisian top seed at the Adelaide International lost in three sets to Elena Rybakina at Wimbledon last July, then reached the US Open title match two months later, going down to Iga Swiatek. She said she was keen to take her game to the highest podium, starting at the Australian Open in January. “I was ready to win this year (2022), but it didn’t happen,” she said. “I’m doing everything possible to win a Grand Slam. I’m just going to go for it. “This year, 2023, is about just being free and playing my game. I’m glad I got the experience from two finals in a Grand Slam.” Jabeur, the first Arab woman in the WTA top 10, said she and her team laboured during the off-season to fine-tune her powerful game. “We’ve worked really hard to improve a lot of things, …