‘Emotional’ Jabeur into first top-tier final
EIGHTH seed Ons Jabeur advanced to the biggest final of her career with an impressive 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova in Madrid yesterday.
The Tunisian followed up wins against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic and former world number one Simona Halep with just her second success in eight meetings with Alexandrova to move into a maiden WTA 1000 final.
“It was a very emotional match. For those who don’t know, I have a 1-6 record against her. So, it was a tough match mentally,” said Jabeur.
“But I’m glad that I pulled the win today. I played really good, I was ready for the right moments, and hopefully I can continue playing at this level for the final.”
In the men’s event, former world number one Murray was forced to pull out of his last-16 match against Djokovic, citing food poisoning.
It would have been the 37th meeting between Murray and current world number one Djokovic, but the first since they played each other in the Doha final in January 2017.
Djokovic, a three-time champion in Madrid, now moves directly into a quarter-final against Polish No 12 seed Hubert Hurkacz, who knocked out Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic 7-5, 6-3.
Sixth seed Andrey Rublev reached the seventh Masters 1000 quarter-final of his career with a 7-6(7), 7-5 result against Dan Evans of Great Britain.
Rublev bounced back from 1-3 down in the opening set, and saved a set point in the tiebreak before securing a lead in one hour and 15 minutes.
In the second set, Rublev saw an early service break lead wiped by Evans before he made a late move in the 11th game to wrap up a hard-fought victory, his third in five meetings with the Brit.
The Russian finished the match with 46 winners, 34 of which came off the forehand.
Rublev, who was also tested in his opening match against Jack Draper, admits it has been a “stressful” tournament for him so far, despite arriving to the Spanish capital fresh from a title run in Belgrade.
Rublev will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the next round.