AFP – Top seed Ons Jabeur was sent crashing out of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 Guadalajara Open on Wednesday, losing a gruelling three-hour battle to Italy’s Martina Trevisan.
Tunisian star Jabeur, the losing finalist at Wimbledon for the past two years, was downed 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 6-3 by the unseeded Trevisan, currently ranked 54th in the world.
Jabeur looked to have taken a grip on the match after taking the first set on a tie-break and then surging into a 30-0 lead as she served for the match at 5-4 in the second set.
But the world number seven was left stunned after Trevisan battled back to break twice in quick succession to take the set and level the match.
The 29-year-old Italian, who is chasing only the second WTA title of her career this week in Mexico, then broke for a 5-3 lead in the decider before holding to clinch victory.
Trevisan will face unseeded American Caroline Dolehide in the quarter-finals. Dolehide advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of Russian eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
In other matches on Wednesday, Sofia Kenin’s impressive return to form continued as the unseeded American upset sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko to reach the last eight.
Former Australian Open champion Kenin, who last reached the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event in 2019, booked her place in the last eight with a 6-4, 7-5 win in one hour and 44 minutes.
