Top seed Ons Jabeur fought her way into the semi-finals of the Bett1 Open in Berlin on Friday in her quarter-final match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich. The Tunisian came from a set and break down to claim a 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-2 in an hour and 56 minutes.
At the start of the match, it was Jabeur who surged ahead as she took a 5-2 lead in the first set. However, Sasnovich levelled the proceedings before eventually taking the set in the tie-break. Sasnovich’s momentum also saw her go up an early break on Jabeur in the second set but Jabeur didn’t take long to overturn Sasnovich’s dominance, and went about taking control of the rest of the match thereafter.
Bett1 Open: Belinda Bencic’s triumph
Jabeur won 71% of her first-serve points to Sasnovich’s 58% and 41% of her second-serve points to the latter’s 42%. She finished the match with four more winners than Sasnovich’s 15.
In the semi-finals, the world no. 4 will play seventh-seeded Coco Gauff. The American pipped fourth seed Karolina Pliskova, 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 37 minutes to reach the semi-finals of a tournament on grass for the first time in her career.
Speaking after her win, Gauff said, “I’m super happy with how I played today. Playing her on grass, with her serve, how flat she hits the ball, it was really tough to be honest. I had to come up with a couple (of) different game styles that I normally don’t use, but sometimes it’s like that. A first semi-final on grass is pretty cool, and also, I feel like the opponents I’ve played this week haven’t been easy, especially today, so I’m proud of myself about that.”
Meanwhile, in the bottom half of the draw of the Bett1 Open, eighth seed Belinda Bencic and second seed Maria Sakkari will play the semi-finals. Bencic defeated Veronika Kudermetova, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 while Sakkari upset sixth seed Daria Kasatkina, 6-0, 6-3.