Ons Jabeur finds ‘A’ Game in Stuttgart

James Richardson 21 Apr 2023 8:33 PM

Ons Jabeur

Third seed Ons Jabeur was close to her best in a quickfire demolition of Beatriz Haddad Maia in Friday’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix quarterfinals.

Jabeur took just 68 minutes to dispatch the World No 14 in their first tour-level meeting 6-3, 6-0.

The Tunisian broke Haddad Maia four times and won the last seven games of the match on the bounce.

Through to the Stuttgart semifinals for the first time!

No.3 seed @Ons_Jabeur will face either Swiatek or Pliskova for a place in the #PorscheTennis final ⏳ pic.twitter.com/NSryi0VzqG

— wta (@WTA) April 21, 2023

Jabeur was delighted to find her best game and felt she didn’t need any feedback from her coach with everything going her way.

“I don’t think my coach could tell me anything for today,” Jabeur said. “She’s an amazing player, but I think I really played my ‘A’ game today. I’m very happy with the way I played, especially in the second set, very relaxed and making the right choices.”

Jabeur has advanced to her third semifinal of the season, and her second on clay this term. She is making her maiden appearance in the final four in Stuttgart, having lost in the last eight in the 2022 event.

The World No 4 has now won seven consecutive WTA Tour matches, six of which were in straight sets. Her lone set loss occurred in her opening encounter in Stuttgart, where she rallied from a set down to overcome Jelena Ostapenko.

In winning, Jabeur struck 25 winners, more than double Haddad Maia’s total of 11. In addition, she slammed five aces while Haddad Maia wasn’t able to get a single one on the board.

Jabeur’s victory over World No 14 Haddad Maia is her 30th career triumph over a Top 20 player, and her third notched in this current year.

From 2-2 in the first set, Jabeur won 10 of 11 games in a dominant finish to the contest.

Jabeur would at least have to save two break points in the fifth game after failing to convert one in each of the first two Haddad Maia service games. Those two points were the only break points faced by Jabeur across the match as a whole.

Jabeur and Haddad Maia’s only previous meeting came at an ITF tournament in Joué-lès-Tours, France, in 2016. At that time, they were both ranked considerably outside the Top 100, with Jabeur then world No197 and Haddad Maia ranking 275th on the WTA’s standings.

Jabeur now has a winning percentage of more than 50% in WTA quarterfinals. She is now 17-16 in her career in last eight matches at this level.