Tunisian Ons Jabeur came back from a poor start to beat Belinda Bencic 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 at the Mubadala Tennis World Championship in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
Jabeur, who replaced Emma Raducanu at the event, then roared back to take the first five games of the second set before Bencic staged her own fightback.
But the match was decided on a tense third set, with Jabeur letting three match points slip in a tiebreak.
Jabeur focused and came back to beat off the challenge of the Swiss star as a backhand shot from Bencic missed its mark to give victory to the Tunisian.
“Belinda surprised me with some drop shots – she was stealing my thunder a little bit.” Jabeur said.
“The crowd is amazing and the energy is perfect.”
Felix Auger-Aliassime received another stroke of luck on Friday as he advanced to the Madrid…
Andrey Rublev pounded 20 winners as he eliminated Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-3 in Madrid to move…
The injury-marred season of Carlos Alcaraz jumped from bad to worse on Friday as the…
Rafael Nadal could well duplicate the 2022 retirement scenario of Roger Federer, announcing the end…
The Madrid Masters was hit by another high-profile requirement on Thursday, with injured Daniil Medvedev…
Iga Swiatek overwhelmed Madison Keys with the loss of just four games on Thursday to…