SYDNEY – Archyde.com
Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur beat Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4 in the Sydney Tennis Championships on Wednesday to achieve her first victory in four matches against the two-time Wimbledon winner, and Spain’s Garbine Muguruza reached the quarter-finals.
And the world’s tenth-ranked Ons, whose latest defeat came against Kvitova in Cincinnati last August, fought after her serve was broken in each set, before she succeeded in making up for it.
The Czech Kvitova will play in the Australian Open next week, while she wants to do better than in 2019 when she reached the final, and has already shown glimpses of her strength but in the end was broken five times by the Tunisian player.
Ons told reporters, “Finally, after many defeats against her. It is not easy to return such strong serve, but I was ready, and I really wanted to win, so I sought it.”
“I learned from my defeats against her, especially the last time in Cincinnati. To be honest, I’m glad the pitch wasn’t too fast and that helped me a bit.”
Ons will next play Anett Kontaveit, who defeated Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ross 6-3, 6-1.
In another match, Muguruza, a two-time Grand Slam champion, survived a late comeback from Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, defeating her 6-1 7-6(3).
Muguruza will play in the next match against another Russian player, Daria Kasatkina, who won 6-3 6-4 over Elise Mertens.
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