Ons Jabeur frustrated after a shocking first-round exit at French Open, gives credit to Magda Linette
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Magda Linette, Ons Jabeur
Ons Jabeur was the sixth seed for the French Open 2022. She was coming off of two amazing tournaments. She had won her first WTA 1000 title in the Mutua Madrid Open, and in her second tournament in Rome, she was the runner-up. After two spectacular performances, she was one of the dark horses to win the Roland-Garros, at least to make it far in the tournament.
Jabeur faced Magda Linette in the first round at Stade Roland Garros, where she lost a very close match to the Pole. Linette came back from a set down to defeat Jabeur 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5. Linette pulled of a big upset in the round of the women’s draw. She had faced Jabeur four times before their meeting in Paris and had a 1-3 score against the Tunisian. Linette had lost to Jabeur in all three previous meetings, but she was more resilient this time around.
Both the players had their serves broken a lot in the first set. After Jabeur wrapped the set 6-3, Magda Linette slowly started gaining momentum as she held serves, broke Jabeur’s serves, and played better than Ons to beat the world number 6.
Ons Jabeur feels her opponent played well on important moments
Ons Jabeur looked a bit rusty today, and combined with the momentum Linette got as she progresses in the match, it was lights out for Jabeur. In the post-match interview she said:
“It was tough today. I gave it all and she had her momentum on court, she didn’t give me too many options and I felt that she had an answer to all my shots and she played very well in the important moments.”
Jabeur reflected on her match in the press conference. She said:
“A bit disappointed because I was expecting myself to go far in the tournament, especially with the clay season starting well for me. But that’s tennis. I try to focus on the positive and reflect a lot on this match. The first set was good enough for me. Second set, I didn’t have the opportunity to break her during the serve which made it very difficult for me to stay in the match.”
“But in the third set, there was a lot of momentum, a lot of frustration. But, that’s tennis and I’ll have to accept that I lost and get back to training and get ready for the grass season. If I was able to finish the shot, to win many points that I was supposed to win at the beginning. It’s frustrating because I had my opportunities, especially at 4-3 in second set, and then not being able to break her serve and not being able to return as good as I wanted, that made it difficult for me.”
“I am a pretty positive person. I’m not going to let a match like this ruin it, but I was expecting better, but maybe it’s a good thing for me to reflect on this match. We say that something bad happens because something good might happen in the future. Hopefully the grass season, Wimbledon. Great time to reflect and to see what’s going to happen next.”
Magda Linette came prepared for Jabeur, as she said:
“I lost to her last year here and then this year in Miami, so I kind of knew what to expect. I had some sort of a plan, but I just knew that she was really on fire this time and I would just really need to play point by point, be really mentally tough.”
Linette sent the shockwaves throughout the tournament with a thunderous win over world number 6, Ons Jabeur. Linette would want to continue her momentum to go past her best performance of Round 3 appearance at the Roland-Garros.
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Prateek Sinha
(365 Articles Published)