New York
Last year’s finalist Ons Jabeur of Tunisia needed nearly three hours to post a 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3 comeback win over Czech player Marie Bouzkova at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Saturday’s win was the second straight three-set triumph for the 29-year-old from Tunisia. After her latest closely-contested win, Jabeur meets Zheng Qinwen, the rising 20-year-old from China, in the Round of 16 on Monday. Down 3-5, Jabeur had 15 errors to her opponent’s five, and looked as if she was on her way to conceding the set. The Tunisian rallied, but Bouzkova took the first frame, 7-5. In the second set, the 29-year-old Tunisian was up a break at 5-4, when a physically ailing Bouzkova limped to her chair. After an off-court medical timeout, the Czech player returned with a look of distress on her face. Stumbling at times, and not even trying to retrieve Jabeur’s drop shots, Bouzkova leveled the set when a wild Jabeur forehand sailed out, and went on to hold for a 6-5 lead. Jabeur, however, held again and forced a tiebreaker by taking the set 7-6(5). In the tiebreaker Jabeur broke Bouzkova — at love — to take a 2-0 lead. Naturally, Bouzkova broke right back and held to make it 2-2. Two games later, Bouzkova led 40-0, but the Czech lost five straight points, and Jabeur took a decisive 4-2 lead which she would not relinquish. In other action, reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova of Czech Republic needed only 56 minutes to claim a spot in the Round of 16, dispatching No.22 seed Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday. With the win, Vondrousova matches her career-best showing at the US Open — a run to the Round of 16 as a 19-year-old in 2018.
