Top seed Elina Svitolina overcame a patchy performance to defeat Ons Jabeur 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(4), in the quarter-finals of the Taiwan Open.
Racing through the first set in just 27 minutes, the world No.13 started to come undone as she struggled to tame Jabeur’s powerful groundstrokes. Svitolina’s roller coaster performance was highlighted by her winner-error ratio of 16-34, but she helped towards the win by her opponent’s nervous play.
World No.181 Jabeur had four chances to seal the final set 6-4 and served for the match two games later. On both occasions the Tunisian failed to close the proceedings out due to some costly errors. As a consequence, the top seed survived the scare by clinching the decisive tiebreak to move into the semifinals.
“I think Ons played unbelievable today. I think I got a little bit lucky towards the end because she was playing so amazing.” Said Svitolina.
“I was trying to fight through everything and in the end I think the crowd helped me a lot.”
The encounter was a rematch of the 2010 French Open girls final. On that occasion Svitolina triumphed in straight sets. Shortly after her latest win, the Ukrainian was full of praise concerning her rival.
“I think the only way is up for her because she was fighting for every ball, even when she was one set down.” She said of Jabeur.
“I’m sure that she is going to play well in 2017 because she has had a good start and played well here, beating some good players. All the credit to her today.”
Svitolina will play either China’s Zhu Lin or Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella in the last four.
Stosur crashes out
Sam Stosur has exited the tournament following a 6-4, 6-4, loss to China’s Peng Shuai. The second seed had a 6-0 head-to-head lead over Shuai prior to their Taiwan meeting, but was failed by her usually reliable serve. Stosur only managed to win 50% of her service points throughout the match.
Peng downs Stosur 6-4, 6-4!
Plays @LucieSafarova next in @WTA_Taiwan_Open Semifinals! pic.twitter.com/l1QH9xsbpV
— wta (@WTA) February 3, 2017
Peng will next play Czech wildcard Lucie Safarova, who defeated Japanese sixth seed Misaki Doi 6-4, 7-6(1).
