Ons Jabeur and Belinda Bencic scored first round wins at the WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open.
Jabeur battled past 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 on Stadium Court after 1 hour and 46 minutes to clinch her third straight win over Ostapenko.
Jabeur ended the 2024 season after Toronto in August due to a shoulder injury. She made her come-back at the start of the 2023 season and has scored a win-loss record of 7-3 so far this year.
Ostapenko earned an early break to take a 2-0 lead, but Jabeur pulled back on serve in the third game. Ostapenko broke again in the third game to take a 3-1 lead, but Jabeur broke back in the fifth game and held serve to draw level to 3-3. Both players traded breaks in the seventh and eighth games and held their next service games en route to the tie-break. Jabeur reeled off the final four points to win the tie-break 7-4. Ostapenko made 23 unforced errors.
Ostapenko converted her third break point in the first game of the second set. Jabeur broke straight back in the second game to draw level to 1-1. Ostapenko broke in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead earning a chance to level the match when she served for the second set, but Jabeur pulled back on serve again. Jabeur won the final three games of the match and sealed the win with a backhand winner down the line.
Jabeur set up a second round match against 17-year-old Japanese rising star Wakane Sonobe, who won the Australian Open Junior title last month.
“Jelena is such a great player. It’s very tough to play her. So I try to focus on myself. The crowd definitely helped. I was trying to stay focused, because if you lose a little bit of focus here, she can take advantage, so I am very happy with the level that I played in, and definitely did not frustrated at the right moments”, said Jabeur.
Formed world number 4 Belinda Bencic overcame Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 6-2 3-6 6-1. Bencic has scored a record of 8 wins to 3 defeats so far this year and reached a round of 16 at the Australian Open in her first tournament since giving birth to her daughter Bella.
Bencic broke twice in the first and seventh games to win the first set 6-2. Sramkova earned an early break in the second game to take a 2-0 lead in the second set. Bencic broke straight back in the third game. Sramkova converted her fourth break in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. Sramkova served out on her second set point after saving two break points.
Bencic broke twice in the fourth and sixth games and closed out the third set on her first match point.
Bencic set up a second round match against lucky loser Veronika Kudemerova. Bencic leads 5-4 in her nine head-to-head matches against Kudemertova.
