(Madrid) Tunisian Ons Jabeur, 10and world player, won the second title of her career, the most prestigious, on Saturday night in Madrid at the expense of the American Jessica Pegula (14and), beaten 7-5, 0-6, 6-2, two weeks before Roland-Garros (May 22-June 5).
Updated yesterday at 5:10 p.m.
Jabeur (27), who was playing her sixth final, had so far won only once, in Birmingham in 2021. The Tunisian becomes the first Arab player to register a WTA 1000 tournament on her record, the highest category. higher after the Grand Slams, the equivalent of the Masters 1000 on the men’s circuit.
Two years ago, she became the first Arab player to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open 2020, a performance that allowed her to enter the Top 50. Then last year, the first to be titled on the WTA circuit.
Jabeur will climb to seventh in the world on Monday. She will thus equal her best ranking achieved last November.
Favorite for the title in this final, the Tunisian player held her rank despite a less good start than her opponent, who led 4 games to 1 in the first set, and despite a dry breakdown in the second: from the start of the second set at the start of the third, she lost her serve four times in a row.
Jabeur then managed to regain her senses and she managed to win in just under two hours, on a winning service.
Both Jabeur and Pegula were playing their first WTA 1000 final. Pegula.