Jabeur comes back against Raducanu to become first woman to defend Mubadala WTC title
WTA
Ons Jabeur made history at the 2022 Mubadala World Tennis Championship, becoming the first woman to successfully defend her title at this exhibition event.
The Mubadala World Tennis Championship is a popular exhibition held every year at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
It was first held in 2009, as only a men's exhibition. Between 2009 and 2019, it was won five times by Rafael Nadal, four times by Novak Djokovic, and twice by Andy Murray.
The only other winner than these three was Kevin Anderson in 2017 when neither of them competed after Djokovic withdrew from the event.
It was in 2017 when also women's event was added. Unlike men's, where six players compete in a small draw, the women's Mubadala World Tennis Championship only features one match.
In 2017, Jelena Ostapenko beat Serena Williams, and the following year, Serena lost to her sister Venus. In 2019 Maria Sharapova bested Ajla Tomljanovic, before the exhibition was not held in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, Ons Jabeur beat Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 to lift her maiden title at the event, and this year, she became the first two-time champion at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship after beating Emma Raducanu.
The battle started already in the opening game, as players played through seven deuces, but despite facing four break points, Jabeur was able to hold her serve. That would later come in handy, as she broke first to lead 4-1, and later also 5-3.
But from there, Raducanu was unstoppable in the first set. The British player won four consecutive games to steal the set from her opponent, winning it 7-5.
In the second set, both players improved on their serve, but there was one moment when Raducanu showed signs of struggles, and Jabeur used it to break and later win the set 6-3.
Since it's only an exhibition, the match was decided by a super tie-break. Despite trailing 6-8 at one point, Jabeur was the better player in the tie-break to eventually win the match 5-7, 6-3, 10-8, becoming a two-time Mubadala World Tennis Championship champion.
