BERLIN – Top-seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia recorded six aces and claimed her second title of the year when No.8 seed Belinda Bencic retired during the championship match of the bett1open at Berlin.
Jabeur was leading 6-3, 2-1 when Bencic of Switzerland couldn’t continue due to an ankle injury. The No. 8 seed sustained the injury while returning a serve in the final game of the first set.
Jabeur also won the 1000-level clay-court event in Madrid last month. She is projected to rise to a career-best No. 3 world ranking.
“From what I know of Belinda, she would have taken me to three sets,” said Jabeur, who wished her opponent a speedy recovery with Wimbledon due to start in a week’s time.
“I think [Jabeur] really deserves this title and she’s playing great tennis at the moment,” Bencic said afterwards.
“I played maybe one match too much,” Bencic continued. “Four heavy three-setters maybe didn’t help my legs to be steady. But I’m really happy with this tournament, I’m really happy with my level, and sometimes this happens. It’s kind of for sure a bittersweet moment.”
Behind fierce forehands, Jabeur raced to an initial 3-0 lead in the match, but Bencic got back on serve to pull to 4-3.
Jabeur, though, played a stunning game to break again, firing deft lobs and consistently grazing the sideline to lead 5-3.
Bencic had four break points to get back on serve in the next game, but Jabeur fended each of them off. On the fourth deuce of that game, Bencic went over on her ankle while returning serve, and took an immediate medical time-out.
After Jabeur served out the first set, Bencic contested the first three games of the second set, but after being broken for 2-1, last year’s Olympic gold medalist had to stop play.
Elsewhere, Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia won two matches and notched the championship in Birmingham, England when China’s Zhang Shuai retired in the first set with Haddad Maia leading 5-4.
Rain washed out play so Haddad Maia upset second-seeded Simona Halep of Romania 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 earlier Sunday before beating the eighth-seeded Zhang. Haddad Maia has won 10 straight matches and two straight events, including winning at Nottingham last week.
Zhang outlasted sixth-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) in her semifinal match.
Top-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia, meanwhile, cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the first round in Germany. Great Britain’s Katie Swan stunned Sloane Stephens 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 while Ann Li posted a 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-1 victory over Hungary’s Anna Bondar.
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