Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur reversed the result of last year’s Charleston Open final, this time defeating Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic 7-6(6), 6-4 on Sunday in South Carolina.
Bencic had beaten Jabeur in three sets during the 2022 championship match.
The title was the fourth of Jabeur’s WTA career, her second on clay.
Seeded second in the tournament, Jabeur lost her serve in the first game of the match, then pulled level with a break for when fourth-seeded Bencic was serving for the set at 5-4. Jabeur couldn’t take advantage of five set points at 5-6, and Bencic squandered two set points in the tiebreaker before Jabeur sealed the set.
Service breaks in five of the first six games of the second set left Jabeur up 4-2, and she went on to close out the victory.
Earlier Sunday, Bencic completed a rain-delayed, 7-5, 7-6 (5) semifinal win over top-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States. The match had been halted in the second-set tiebreaker, and Bencic won five of six points upon the resumption to advance.
Copa Colsanitas
Second-seeded Tatjana Maria of Germany won the Bogota, Colombia, event for the second straight year, edging the United States’ Peyton Stearns 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the final.
Maria, 35, has won only three tournaments in her career. In addition to her Bogota success, she prevailed at Santa Ponsa, Spain, in June 2018.
Maria never faced a break point in the third set on Sunday, and she got the lone break of the set for a 3-2 lead.
Stearns, 21, was playing in her first career WTA final.
–Field Level Media
