Jelena Ostapenko outlast Ons Jabeur in three sets to advance to QFs

Jelena Ostapenko clenches her first during her match with Ons Jabeur at the Viking International in Eastbourne, England.

Jelena Ostapenko pulled off the comeback with hard work at the Viking International Wednesday. The Latvian overcame a tough battle with Ons Jabeur, who gave it her all but tripped up in the end with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 score on Court One at Devonshire Park in Eastbourne. The Latvian’s victory snapped a long streak and a high for the Tunisian. 

The two met for the first time on grass, making it their third overall. The Tunisian continued to feed off the success of her maiden WTA title and becoming the first Arab woman to win a tennis championship. Her win over Marketa Vondrousova was a hard-earned one to increase her match streak to six games. Jabeur takes on an even harder opponent who has been hot with her experience coming up clutch. While she didn’t get the big success in Birmingham, the statement made against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova makes Jabeur a big target to take down and reach the round of 16 a fourth time. 

The Latvian opened service with a fight from Jabeur but held well to start off the set. The Tunisian held serve from her end, but as Ostapenko got into the third, she put the offense in new gear to score a shutout. Jabeur got one of her own that matched them through four games, showing no signs of letting up. Ostapenko notched a second straight that upped the ante against her opponent with a break in the following game. 

With a 4-2 lead, the Latvian saw her service under attack and Jabeur successfully breaking in the seventh. She backed it up with a strong serve that decimated Ostapenko’s lead, leaving her to fight for the set win. Using her anger and aggressive tennis, the 24-year-old secured the ninth game, hoping to put pressure on Jabeur to fall apart. The Tunisian responded with a serve to love that leveled them at five-all and went on to break Ostapenko for the lead. 

The Latvian had a problem when it came to breaking Jabeur this late on serve as the defense was the order of the moment. The 26-year-old saved two break points to force deuce before finding her way to get back into control. After losing a set point and saving herself from a third by Ostapenko, Jabeur forced an error on the final point to take the set in 40 minutes. It was the 14^th from the Latvian, who had to deal with six aces and 13 winners from the leader. 

She didn’t make it easier going into the second set as Jabeur opened it with a break. Ostapenko followed suit and stayed with the course against the 26-year-old through two more breaks. The Latvian found a way to dig out a hold of serve in the fifth and tallied a break to go along with it. She thought that her two-game lead, would give her a chance to pull further away from Jabeur, but a break by the Tunisian kept her close after seven. 

Jabeur managed to hold the eighth that leveled her once more, but the Latvian was having none of what occurred in the opening set. She held strong in the ninth, letting out a huge scream at Jabeur’s support and getting called out for it by the umpire. After taking a tongue lashing, the Latvian went into the tenth, breaking the Tunisian to force a third set after 33 minutes. Despite committing three double faults, Ostapenko scored on every breakpoint chance she created and minimized the errors to continue her fight for a quarterfinal spot. 

The fight was on between the two as Ostapenko opened up the deciding set with a hold of serve. Jabeur followed suit and they both continued to keep the other from breaking through the next four games. There was no clear leader until the seventh when the Latvian made a big push to secure a hold of serve. She went on to wreak havoc on Jabeur’s serve that scored her the break and a 5-3 stance to serve for the match. The 24-year-old focused well, produced a couple of free points, and earned the win after 1 hour and 42 minutes.