Ons Jabeur Completes Second-Round Comeback at Cincinnati 

Ons Jabeur of Tunisia serves to Anhelina Kalinina of the Ukraine during their third round match at the Western & Southern Open at Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 15, 2023, in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images/AFP)
Ons Jabeur of Tunisia serves to Anhelina Kalinina of the Ukraine during their third round match at the Western & Southern Open at Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 15, 2023, in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Ons Jabeur Completes Second-Round Comeback at Cincinnati 

Ons Jabeur of Tunisia serves to Anhelina Kalinina of the Ukraine during their third round match at the Western & Southern Open at Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 15, 2023, in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images/AFP)
Ons Jabeur of Tunisia serves to Anhelina Kalinina of the Ukraine during their third round match at the Western & Southern Open at Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 15, 2023, in Mason, Ohio. (Getty Images/AFP)

No. 5 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia battled back from a hefty deficit in the third set to secure a 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (2) victory over Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina in a second-round match at the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday in Mason, Ohio.

After earning a first-round bye, Jabeur was playing in her first match since losing to Czech Marketa Vondrousova in the Wimbledon final on July 15. She took command early, recording four aces to take the opening set before Kalinina leveled the match.

Kalinina carried that momentum over to the third set, where she jumped out to a 5-1 lead. But Jabeur took the next five games, eventually forced a tiebreaker and went on to prevent the upset at the Cincinnati-area tournament.

"Very happy with the win," Jabeur said. "It was very tough, but I'm glad that I kept fighting, kept playing point by point, and I'm glad that I got the win in the end."

Jabeur finished with six aces for the match. Kalinina saved 14 of 21 break points, but she was hampered by 13 double faults.

"Some situations that I went through during this match definitely helped get me back into the hard-court season," Jabeur said. "I will try to keep going, keep playing more matches. The more matches I play, the better."

In a second-round match contested Tuesday night, the United States' Sloane Stephens ousted French sixth seed Caroline Garcia 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Czechs Petra Kvitova and Vondrousova and Daria Kasatkina of Russia were also able to ward off upsets on Tuesday.

Kvitova, the No. 9 seed, beat Russian Anna Blinkova 7-6 (2), 6-0, and Vondrousova, the No. 10 seed, defeated countrywoman Katerina Siniakova 7-5, 6-4. Fourteenth-seeded Kasatkina swept American Peyton Stearns 6-2, 6-1.

No. 11 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic wasn't as lucky, falling 6-3, 7-5 to Belarus' Victoria Azarenka. Swiss No. 13 seed Belinda Bencic was also toppled by an unseeded opponent, losing 6-4, 3-6, 2-6 to Spain's Cristina Bucsa.

Belgium's Elise Mertens knocked out 15th-seeded Madison Keys of the United States 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a match that ended at 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

Other first-round winners on Tuesday included Romanian Sorana Cirstea, Marie Bouzkova and Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic, Egypt's Mayar Sherif, Varvara Gracheva of France, Latvian Jelena Ostapenko and Italy's Martina Trevisan.

Croatians Donna Vekic and Petra Martic and Americans Ann Li and Danielle Collins also earned victories.



Alcaraz Resists Rublev to Reach Wimbledon Quarter-finals

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates winning a game against Russia's Andrey Rublev during their men's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 6, 2025. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates winning a game against Russia's Andrey Rublev during their men's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 6, 2025. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
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Alcaraz Resists Rublev to Reach Wimbledon Quarter-finals

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates winning a game against Russia's Andrey Rublev during their men's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 6, 2025. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates winning a game against Russia's Andrey Rublev during their men's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 6, 2025. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

Carlos Alcaraz came through a ferocious fourth-round firefight against a red-hot Andrey Rublev to win 6-7(5) 6-3 6-4 6-4 on Centre Court and keep his bid for a third successive Wimbledon title on track on Sunday.

The Spanish second seed stuttered in his opening three rounds but found his best form to eventually subdue an inspired opponent who once again came up short against the very best, Reuters reported.

Rublev rocked Alcaraz by roaring into a 4-1 lead only to be pegged back but the Russian produced some astonishing tennis to snatch the tiebreak and move ahead.

Alcaraz never looked ruffled though and levelled the match after Rublev double-faulted on a break point. Rublev continued throwing everything in his arsenal at the champion in the third set but paid for not taking some early break points as Alcaraz found another gear.

Alcaraz looked impregnable in the fourth set and a single break of serve was enough to seal a 22nd successive match win and set up a last-eight clash with Britain's Cameron Norrie.

"Andrey is one of the most powerful players we have on Tour and is so aggressive with the ball. It's really difficult to face him, he forces you to the limit on each point," Alcaraz, bidding to become only the fourth man to win back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles multiple times, said on court.

"Really happy with the way I moved and played intelligent and smart tactically. A really good match all round."

With so many seeds having fallen early, this was the first match between top-20 players in the men's singles this year and it did not disappoint as the quality scaled rare heights.

Rublev, 27, has barely been outside of the top 10 since 2022 but has never got close to winning a Grand Slam, losing all 10 quarter-finals that he has contested.

The 14th seed must have sighed when he saw Alcaraz in his way in the fourth round, but he came out in positive fashion, off-loading rockets at the five-time Grand Slam champion.

With the roof closed after earlier thunderstorms the noise of the ball striking strings sounded like rifle shots.

Rublev hit harder, then harder still and at 5-5 in the opening set launched an outrageous backhand winner off a full-blooded Alcaraz forehand and then followed with a powerful forehand of his own to the baseline to move a set ahead.

He barely did anything wrong after that but Alcaraz, finally clicking into gear after three scratchy wins, showed why taking the title off him will be such a tough task.

The turning point came at 3-3 in the third set when Rublev, attempting to save a break point, sent Alcaraz sliding from side to side with a barrage of power only for the Spaniard to whip a forehand cross court winner, before cupping his ear to the crowd who rose as one to salute the moment of genius.

Rublev stuck manfully to his task but he was powerless to prevent an 11th loss from 11 matches against top-five opponents at a Grand Slam.