Abu Dhabi: Ons Jabeur units up Elena Rybakina showdown, Paula Badosa upset

Ons Jabeur overcame qualifier Wakane Sonobe to achieve the Abu Dhabi quarterfinal, whereas Paula Badosa suffered a loss in her opening match within the United Arab Emirates event. 

After beating Jelena Ostapenko in two units on Tuesday, the Tunisian returned to the court docket right this moment and beat the 17-year-old rising Japanese star 6-3 6-3.

By doing so, the three-time Grand Slam runner-up arrange a quarterfinal showdown in opposition to Elena Rybakina. 

Ons Jabeur© Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open/Instagram – Truthful Use

 

After Jabeur, Badosa – who was seeded at No. 2 and had a first-round bye – got here out on the court docket.

However not like the Tunisian, the Spaniard did not get pleasure from an excellent day on the workplace as Linda Noskova handed her a 6-4 6-1 defeat.

When Jabeur meets Rybakina in Abu Dhabi, it will likely be their sixth assembly. 

After they met the final time, the Tunisian former world No. 2 ended on the profitable aspect however the Kazakh nonetheless leads their head-to-head 3-2. 

On the opposite aspect, Noskova awaits the winner of the match between No. 6 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Magda Linette. 

How Jabeur, Noskova received their respective Abu Dhabi round-of-16 matches?

After blowing her first break, the Tunisian nonetheless routinely received the opening set of her match after incomes back-to-back breaks within the seventh and ninth video games. 

Down by a set, rising star Sonobe began the second set by breaking the three-time Grand Slam finalist within the first recreation. 

Nevertheless, it did not take lengthy earlier than Jabeur overturned the deficit as she registered breaks within the second and eighth video games to get the job carried out in two units.

Within the Noskova and Badosa match, the Czech additionally blew the primary break of the match however broke the Spaniard once more within the ninth recreation for a 5-4 lead earlier than serving out for the opener within the following recreation.

After dropping the opener, the second-seeded Spaniard’s recreation fully fell aside as she misplaced her service 4 instances and ended up dropping in two units.