No.5 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia carried out a staggering third-set comeback in her return to Hologic WTA Tour action at the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday, defeating 28th-ranked Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(2) in the second round.
Jabeur needed 2 hours and 42 minutes to outlast Kalinina at the WTA 1000 event, battling back from 5-1 down in the third set to become the first player to reach this week’s Round of 16.
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"Very happy with the win," Jabeur said afterwards. "It was very tough, but I’m glad that I kept fighting, kept playing point by point, and I’m glad that I got the win in the end."
Back on track: Jabeur had not played a match since her loss to Marketa Vondrousova in an emotional Wimbledon final 31 days ago. After the lack of match activity for a full month, Jabeur had to grind through a topsy-turvy affair against Kalinina on a blustery afternoon.
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In the first set, Jabeur never faced a break point and won 82 percent of her second-service points. Jabeur was two points away from victory when serving for the match at 6-3, 5-4, but Kalinina swept through the second-set tiebreak and forced the Tunisian into a decider.
Kalinina held all the momentum as she built her 5-1 lead in the third set, drawing errors from the No.5 seed. But Jabeur regrouped and methodically chipped away at the advantage, eventually winning five games in a row to lead 6-5.
Kalinina stopped that run of games to reach 6-6, but Jabeur held firm in the decisive third-set tiebreak. A backhand putaway at net gave Jabeur four match points at 6-2, and she only needed one after Kalinina fired a backhand miscue into the net.
"Some situations that I went through during this match definitely helped get me back into the hard-court season," Jabeur said. "I will try to keep going, keep playing more matches. The more matches I play, the better."
Fast facts: It is Jabeur's second win in two meetings against Kalinina, having also beaten the Ukrainian on the green clay of Charleston last year.
Kalinina had a breakthrough run to the WTA 1000 Rome final this May, but she had to retire in that match against Elena Rybakina due to injury. Since then, she has yet to win consecutive matches, posting a 4-8 win-loss record during that time frame.
Jabeur has already reached two WTA 1000 finals in her career, winning the title at 2022 Madrid and finishing runner-up at 2022 Rome, both clay-court events. Jabeur’s career-best result in Cincinnati is a quarterfinal run in 2020.
