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Ons Jabeur successfully retained her Mubadala title against Emma Raducanu in Abu Dhabi.
Tennis star Ons Jabeur, successfully retained her Mubadala World Tennis Championship women’s singles exhibition match for the second consecutive year, after defeating Emma Raducanu in 5-7 6-3 10-8 in Abu Dhabi.
The Tunisian overcame the Brit sensation who was making a comeback to the sport from a wrist injury sustained about three months ago that ended her season early. However, Raducanu put up a great fight, coming from behind to take the opening set before narrowly losing in a match tiebreak.
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Jabeur, a two-time Grand Slam finalist, got back her groove in the second set as she needed just one breakpoint chance to take a 4-2 lead and backed it up with a love-hold. She won the set 6-3 after 36 minutes to force a final set match tiebreak, with the first to 10 points winning the match.
Both women traded mini-breaks before Jabeur took a 3-1 lead after one of Raducanu's strikes caught the tape on the net and was sent out. Raducanu managed to get back level and then went a mini-break up herself at 6-5, but lost her advantage as the pair continued to trade mini-breaks.
After leading 8-6, Raducanu suddenly found herself match point down at 9-8 as Jabeur successfully defended her title with a 5-7 6-3 10-8 comeback win over the debutant in Abu Dhabi.
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Jabeur made history last year as the first Arab woman to win the Mubadala title, and now she has done it twice. Hence, the reason she had majority of the crowd cheering her on, especially those from her home country.
Speaking after her victory, the 28-year-old who had a large following in Abu Dhabi and with a host of Tunisian flags being waved thought her opponent put on a good performance as she was forced to come back from a set down and won the last four points of the match.
"I mean, I have to play with a smile on my face, it's truly amazing to be back, it really feels like home. Emma did not make it easy for me, she's still younger than me so take it easy please, I'm old. I can't really express how happy I am to see a lot of Tunisians following me, not just from Tunisia but from the rest of the Arab world" she said.
And the 20-year-old Raducanu said she was pleased despite the loss to the reigning champion. "I'm so glad this year I was able to make it out of the hotel room," she laughed.
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"Last year I had a bit of a shocker. Amazing to play here in front of all of you, this is Ons’ house so thank you for having me. I had to cut my season short because of a wrist injury so I’ve just been building in the gym, started getting back on court recently in the last two weeks, so happy to be making some progressions and looking forward to 2023."
The men’s final will take place as a price money of $250,000 is to be bagged.
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