Ons Jabeur reached the Charleston Open final for the second straight year. The Tunisian defeated Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 7-5 in their semi-final in an hour and 47 minutes, on Saturday. The semi-final between the second-seeded Jabeur and the third-seeded Kasatkina saw the latter race away with a double-break lead in the first set.
In the eighth game, leading 5-2, Kasatkina served for the set but couldn’t even reach set point. Jabeur had to wait for a few hours after rain interrupted play while serving the ninth game of the set. On her serve, Kasatkina had a couple of set points but wasn’t able to convert.
As it turned out, Jabeur won five games in a row from 2-5 down to go up in the match. In the second set, Kasatkina once again gained the upper hand with a break but wasn’t able to maintain it. The pair exchanged one more break of serve in the ninth and 10th game of the set.
The decisive break in the set came in the 12th game as Kasatkina tried to serve to stay in it. At that time, her serve let her down and Jabeur was able to get the win for herself.
Charleston Open: Ons Jabeur moves into familiar territory
After the match, Jabeur said, “I have to thank the rain.
It allowed me to talk to my coach a bit and he gave me some advice and reflect on what happened in the first set. My game was there, I just needed to find something small. I was more patient definitely after, I was building my point more and that really helped me”.
Meanwhile, while Jabeur did get a reprieve from the rain despite the significant delay, it proved to be a dampener during the second semi-final featuring top seed Jessica Pegula and fourth seed Belinda Bencic. The semi-final had to be postponed to Sunday.
Earlier, Bencic, who’s trying to retain her Charleston Open crown this year led the American 7-5 in the opening set. However, in the second set tie-break, Pegula’s got a 4-2 lead. The final will be played on Sunday as well following the completion of this semi-final that will be played in the afternoon.
