Tunisia's Ons Jabeur rallies past Pegula to keep WTA Finals hopes alive

Ons Jabeur rallied for a three-set victory over Jessica Pegula on Wednesday night, keeping alive the US Open finalist's hopes of advancing out of group play in the WTA Finals.

Tennis star Jabeur won the last three games in each of the second and third sets in her 1–6, 6–3, 6–3 victory after dropping seven consecutive games early in the match.

A loss would have put Jabeur at risk of elimination in round-robin play after the second-ranked Tunisian dropped her opening match when Aryna Sabalenka rallied after losing the first set on the indoor hard court at Dickies Arena.

It was just the second win in the past nine matches against a top-10 opponent for Jabeur, who also beat Pegula in the Madrid final on clay in May.

No. 3 Pegula, who was set to play doubles with fellow American Coco Gauff in the final match of the day, has lost nine in a row against top five foes.

Pegula temporarily kept alive her hopes for the semifinals by winning a set, but is a long shot after falling to 0–2 in her WTA Finals debut. Jabeur also is in the season-ending event for the first time.

No. 7 Sabalenka faced fifth-ranked Maria Sakkari in the late match of the tournament that was moved to Texas from China because of concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai, a Grand Slam doubles champion who accused a former government official there of sexual assault.

Coronavirus restrictions also played a part, and WTA Tour Chairman and CEO Steve Simon hopes the event can return to China.

.@Ons_Jabeur struggled to hold back the tears after losing a second consecutive Grand Slam final on Saturday. While the Tunisian said her #USOpen defeat to Iga Swiatek was tough to take, she vowed to come back swinging. For now though, she climbed the ranks and is now world #2 💯 pic.twitter.com/ljjjbnXbqp

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) September 12, 2022

Jabeur, the first African woman to reach the WTA Finals since Amanda Coetzer in 2001, rallied from love-40 to hold in a five-deuce first game of third set, then Pegula saved two break points to get even at 3–3.

Pegula couldn’t do it again, losing at love on her serve to give Jabeur the chance to close out the match.

After dropping the first game of the match, Pegula won seven in a row for a 1–0 lead in the second set before Jabeur, who had 11 unforced errors in the first set, held serve.

Defending doubles champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova beat China's Yifan Xu and Zhaoxuan Yang 6–3, 6–3, putting the Czech duo in the semifinals.

The opponent for Pegula and Gauff in the late doubles match was Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands.