Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur overcame a strong challenge by Anett Kontaveit to advance to the second round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Jabeur beat the Estonian in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, in a match that lasted more than two hours to book a date with former French Open champion and sixth seed Iga Swiatek.
Both players dropped serve in the opening two games but Jabeur would go on to claim two more breaks of serve and wrap up the first set 6-2.
The second set went with serve until the eighth game when Kontaveit broke Jabeur’s serve to take a 5-3 lead. The next game would see Jabeur immediately break back while saving three set points to make it 5-4.
The 10th game was just as tight as the ninth with Kontaveit eventually winning it and leveling the tie at one set apiece after converting her fourth set point.
The deciding set began with both players dropping serve and Jabeur appeared to swing the tie in her favour with a break of serve in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead.
The 26-year-old Tunisian was, however, unable to finish off Kontaveit four games at 5-3 later failing to convert her first match point. That allowed Kontaveit to draw level at 5-5 when Jabeur dropped serve in the 10th game.
Kontaveit then lost serve as Jabeur took a 6-5 lead and went on to stave off a tie-breaker by saving a break point. She closed out the game converting her second match point to record a second win in two meetings against the Estonian.
The meeting between Jabeur and Swiatek will be a rematch of their Wimbledon fourth round match which saw the Tunisian recover from a set down to thump the Pole 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
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