Simona Halep out of 2022 Madrid Open after shocking loss to Ons Jabeur
WTA
Simona Halep was cruising at the 2022 Madrid Open, and it seemed that no one would stop her, but Ons Jabeur did just that in the quarter-finals.
With a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, and a re-discovered love for tennis, the Romanian was destroying one opponent after another at the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid. First, she defeated Shuai Zhang, then the second-seeded Paula Badosa, and then also teenage phenom Coco Gauff, who, too, was among the seeded players.
In the quarter-finals, she faced a third seeded opponent in a row, this time Jabeur, who also showed solid performances in the Spanish capital. The two have met three times before with the Romanian winning in their last two meetings and coming to the match with a four-set winning streak against the Tunisian.
The former world number one was also the first to break in the first set of their match in the Spanish capital, quickly gaining a 2-1 and 30-0 lead. However, at that point, Jabeur turned into the wall as all balls seemed to be coming to the other side of the net as she won 17 out of the following 18 rallies to gain a 5-2 lead.
After another two games of play, the eighth seed easily won the first set 6-3 in just 35 minutes. In the second set, Jabeur started better once again. She broke her opponent's serve in the fifth game, and even though the Romanian had a break point immediately after, she couldn't use her chance.
In addition, the Tunisian created another break point chance, and once again, she used it to hold a two-break advantage in the second set, which she didn't lose to win the match 6-3, 6-2, and advance into the semi-finals of the 2022 Madrid Open.
Despite not ideal quarter-final performance from Halep, she showed that she will be a contender for the 2022 Roland Garros. On the other hand, Jabeur showed once again that she belongs to the Top 10 of the WTA Rankings, and now she will take on Ekaterina Alexandrova or Amanda Anisimova in the semi-finals of the tournament.
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