CHICAGO – Ons Jabeur was hardly thrilled about needing to wake up at 5:30 a.m. ahead of her 9 a.m. match and got off to a slow start before reaching the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic quarter-finals by coming back to beat Jessica Pegula 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The sixth-seeded Jabeur advanced to face No. 1 seed Elina Svitolina, who defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-3.
“Last time I woke up at 5:30 was probably for preseason (training) or to take a flight, not to play a match,” said Jabeur, a 27-year-old Tunisian who is ranked a career-best No. 16 this week. “But I can´t complain much.”
She said she tried to do everything an hour or so earlier than usual, such as eating and going to bed; she was ready to sleep at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday.
“Starting against Jessica is not easy, anyway – 9 a.m. or 5 p.m. is never easy,” Jabeur said according to AP. “So I´m glad that I got the rhythm later.”
Her 42 tour wins in 2021 are second only to No. 2-ranked Aryna Sabalenka´s 43.
“I think I learned a lot from that match, especially learning to focus better at 30-0 on my serve,” she said, recalling her set and 5-4 lead on Pegula at the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal.
“This is something I like about myself and my team: Montréal wasn’t just a loss, but something we learned from, and I’m glad we’re still learning so that everything can go well.”
Other seeded women reaching the quarterfinals at the hard-court tournament included No. 2 Garbine Muguruza – the two-time Grand Slam champion moved on when two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka pulled out before their match was supposed to begin – No. 5 Elena Rybakina and No. 10 Danielle Collins.
But No. 16 Jil Teichmann lost 6-4, 6-3 to unseeded Marketa Vondrousova, the 2019 French Open runner-up.
Rybakina beat No. 12 Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (4), 7-5, and Collins defeated No. 7 Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-4. Mertens had her upper left leg wrapped by a trainer after taking a medical timeout early in the second set.
No reason was immediately given for Azarenka’s withdrawal from the tournament.
No.1 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine continued an undefeated run in Chicago as she ousted Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania, 6-3, 6-3, to move into the quarter-finals.
Svitolina claimed her first title of the season at the Chicago Women’s Open just prior to the US Open, and she has now won seven consecutive matches in the Windy City with her 1-hour and 48-minute victory over World No.98 Ruse.
Ruse, who won her first WTA singles title earlier this season on the clay courts of Hamburg, was playing a member of the Top 10 for the first time in her career. Her win over World No.37 Camila Giorgi in the first round this week was the best of her career by ranking to date.
But 6th-ranked Svitolina had the answers to quash the Romanian’s run, winning 63 per cent of Ruse’s second-service points. Svitolina held a whopping 16 break points during the match, and though she only converted four of those, that was more than enough to ease to victory.
Svitolina currently owns the longest streak for most consecutive weeks in the Top 10, with the Chicago Classic marking her 209th straight week within that echelon.
Jabeur entered the match with a 0-2 career record against the ninth-seeded Pegula.
That included a loss at Montreal in August when Jabeur served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, got broken and ended up losing in three.
That match was on Jabeur’s mind this time, including when she served for the victory at 5-3 in the third set.
She went up 40-love but got too defensive, Jabeur acknowledged afterward, and the first three match points disappeared, two on forehand winners by Pegula.
Jabeur then needed to save a pair of break points before closing things out with an ace and a service winner to reach her sixth quarterfinal of the season, including at Wimbledon in July.
“I am happy,” Jabeur said, “that the same scenario that happened in Montreal did not repeat itself today.”
Fresh off a third-round finish at the US Open and very much in the hunt for an incredible WTA Finals debut in Guadalajara, Jabeur dropped just one game to Hsieh Su-Wei in her Chicago opener but looked decidedly out of sorts to start her rematch with Pegula, who matched Jabeur’s result in New York.
“I’m usually super tired at the end of the year, and it can be hard to find the motivation after giving it all the entire season,” Jabeur said.
“I had a big goal and it’s stressing me a lot, especially because I know many players are hungry go there. I think I made my peace with it, and if it comes, I’m happy with it. If not, it’s a sign I need to take time off court and take care of my body to be ready for next year.”
Pegula’s year has been marked by a mastery of Karolina Pliskova, defeating the former world No. 1 four times before Pliskova finally earned her revenge at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. She began the early encounter with Jabeur playing cleaner tennis as her higher-ranked opponent sprayed 11 unforced errors in a 25-minute first set.
Jabeur flipped the stats considerably in the second, erasing a 0-40 deficit to hold onto her early break of serve to eventually level the match behind a second break and 14 winners to just five errors.
Trading solid holds early in the decider, Jabeur made her move in the eighth game, pulling off a physics-defying drop shot as Pegula served at 30-15 and reeled off the next six points to find herself ahead three match points.
Pegula would put on a brave last stand to save all three and even hold two break points of her own but Jabeur would make no mistake on her fourth opportunity, putting down a big serve to clinch the encounter after 94 minutes on Stadium Court.
In all she struck 24 winners to 21 unforced errors-half of which came in the first set-to book a quarterfinal with top seed Elina Svitolina, who dismissed in-form Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse at a far more forgiving hour.
