Ons Jabeur: Ninth seed Ons Jabeur survived a scare at the French Open on Wednesday as he came through a bruising three-set encounter against Colombia’s Camila Osorio to book a place in the women’s singles third round at the French Open here. The Tunisian star advanced on Parisian clay with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory as she improved to 3-0 over Osorio in their head-to-head series.
While rain had stopped play on the outside courts, Jabeur bolted out of the blocks under the roof on Court Suzanne-Lenglen to take a 3-0 lead in just seven minutes. The 77th-ranked Osorio stopped the rot as she strung together three straight games. But the Tunisian soon took control of the proceedings though the going was not as soon as Jabeur would have hoped as she struggled with her serve.
Jabeur failed to register an ace and landed just 54 per cent of first serves, from which she claimed just 60 per cent of points. The eighth seed faced break points in 13 games, of which she dropped serve six times. Fortunately, she was equally effective at breaking her opponent (six from nine converted) and had few difficulties serving out the contest after an hour and 45 minutes.
Bidding to make her first third round at a Grand Slam this year, Jabeur’s control and accuracy dipped in the second set to let the battling Colombian back in the mix. After striking 12 winners to 9 unforced errors in the first set, Jabeur hit 11 winners to 15 unforced errors in the second. Osorio seized her opportunity, taking control with more aggressive hitting to win her first set in five tries against Jabeur.
Jabeur steadied herself in the deciding set, playing more contained and disciplined tennis to diffuse Osorio’s threat. She finished the 1-hour and 45-minute match with nearly double the winners compared to Osorio, striking 31 to 16.
She next awaits the winner of match between Wang Xiyu and Leylah Fernandez. She is now 15-4 in the second round at Slams, including 5-0 in Paris, where she was a junior champion in 2011.
