Jabeur tops defending champion Bencic for Charleston title

It was not an ideal start to the 2023 season for Ons Jabeur. Coming off a 2022 campaign that saw her reach two major finals, Jabeur lost in the second round at the Australian Open and then underwent a minor knee surgery in February that took her off the court.

With those tribulations behind her the Tunisian is picking up where she left off.

In a rematch of the 2022 final, Jabeur claimed the Charleston Open trophy on Sunday, defeating Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, the No 4 seed, 7-6 (6), 6-4 at the Family Circle Tennis Center on Sunday evening.

“It means a lot to me,” Jabeur said. “Really crazy tournament, a lot of emotions, coming from injuries and not knowing how I’m gonna play here on clay, but everything started slowly. I feel like I played amazing, especially at the end of end of the first set. 

The triumph marks Jabeur’s fourth career title and first on US soil. Since the start of 2020, the 28-year-old has now won more matches on clay (38) than any other WTA player.

A wild opening set, a tense finish

In her fifth career meeting with Bencic, Jabeur quickly found herself under the gun, trailing 5-3 in the opening set. She would quickly rally to lead 6-5 but things got complicated again when Bencic bravely saved five set points to force a tiebreaker.

Momentum firmly in hand the Swiss earned a pair of set points at 6-4 in the breaker, but Jabeur did not hang her head. She struck back, taking the final four points of the tiebreak to claim the set 7-6(6).

This time Jabeur cashed in on her momentum and took a double-break 4-1 lead in the second set. Bencic battled back, closing the gap to a single break, but Jabeur held her nerve – and serve – in the final game as she fought off three break points before finally locking up the title in one hour and 59 minutes.

“I wish every tournament was like this”

Jabeur had kind words to say for the fans in Charleston and their support for women’s tennis.

“I love playing in Charleston because I feel like they appreciate women’s tennis,” she said. “They appreciate us and I wish, like I said, every tournament is like this. We deserve that. I feel like tennis is doing a great step but we need more just for the future generations, so [women] can enjoy playing tennis more and more and give them hope.

Manifesting the title

Jabeur said that she won the title in her mind before she did it on the scoreboard. The Tunisian trailblazer, who has inspired so many Arab fans and female fans, both with her achievements and personality, always likes to light a spark for others to dream big.

“Believe in yourself. Everything is possible,” she said in an interview with Tennis Channel after the final. “I come from a very very small country that probably tennis is not very popular, but it became popular by now which is great. So if you want to do something, believe in it and only you can really manifest it.

“Today I was kind of doing that. I was imagining myself holding the trophy. I was imagining myself in the photoshoot after I was kind of putting the image [in my mind] that I won that title already, and it happened.”

Earlier in the tournament, Jabeur, ranked No 5, defeated Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko (6-3, 6-3), American wildcard Caroline Dolehide (6-3, 7-5), Russian Anna Kalinskaya (6-0, 4-1 ret.) and Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No 3 seed (7-5, 7-5).

Bencic, ranked No 11, beat Canadian qualifier Katherine Sebov (6-0, 6-3), American Shelby Rogers (4-6, 7-5, 6-2), Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No 7 seed (6-3, 6-3) and American Jessica Pegula, the top seed (7-5, 7-6 (5)) in the previous rounds of the Charleston tournament.

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