French Open 2023: Ons Jabeur fights back to down Olga Danilovic and make fourth round at Roland-Garros

Ons Jabeur fought back to down Olga Danilovic and make the fourth round of the French Open at Roland-Garros.

An upset looked in store as world No. 105 Danilovic took the first set on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, but Jabeur regrouped and came through in three sets, 4-6 6-4 6-2.

The first set was a tight affair, with the pair going blow for blow as they each had break point opportunities on their opponent’s serve.

But at 4-3 ahead, it was the unseeded Danilovic who was first to make one stick to go on the verge of taking the opening set.

She was, however, broken immediately back by Jabeur, but there was a third break in a row as Danilovic snuck in to take it 6-4.

After 44 minutes on the court, the World No. 104 was standing on the verge of a huge upset.

Jabeur knew she was in a battle as Danilovic seemed to be working the crowd in her favour.

She dropped just one point across her first two service games of the second set, but dropped a crucial break to Jabeur in the fifth game of the set. The match probably hinged on the following game when Jabeur saw off four break points to hold serve.

Danilovic did get her break in eighth game of the set, levelling at 4-4, but Jabeur broke back immediately before serving out the set. Danilovic once again had a break point in that final game but could not convert.

With the match level, it was shaping as an epic, but Jabeur is World No. 7 for a reason and she showed the gulf in class early in the third. The Tunisian broke her opponent’s serve in three consecutive games to move into a 5-2 lead.

Danilovic suffered a nasty ankle twist and was forced to take a medical timeout, but that could only delay the inevitable.

At match point in the next game, Jabeur gave Danilovic a momentary respite with a double fault but took the match after a long rally on the following point.

After more than two hours on the court, Jabeur had emerged with victory and secured a fourth round meeting with American Bernarda Pera.

Jabeur said on court: “First of all I congratulate Olga for this great match, she’s a great player.”

Turning to the crowd, she acknowledged their support, saying: “Thanks very much to the fans, it was quite a difficult day for me. Some days you don’t play your best tennis, but today, honestly, thanks to you and my mentality I showed I could win this type of match, so thank you.”

Jabeur has never advanced beyond the round of 16 at Roland Garros, though she reached this point in 2020 and 2021, but now has the perfect opportunity.

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