Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur hits a return against Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska during their women’s singles semi-final match of the WTA Ningbo Open tennis tournament in Ningbo, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on September 29, 2023. — AFP pic
SHANGHAI, Sept 30 — Ons Jabeur won the fifth WTA title of her career with an emphatic victory over surprise-package Diana Shnaider in the final of the Ningbo Open in China today.
The seventh-ranked Tunisian demolished the unseeded Shnaider 6-2, 6-1 for her first hardcourt title.
Top seed Jabeur took a last-minute wildcard into the tournament, and it took her all the way to the final.
The Moscow-born 19-year-old Shnaider, who is 85th in the world, had enjoyed a dream run to her first WTA final.
She defeated two-times Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova on the way to the championship match.
But she wilted in the face of Jabeur’s superior power and precision, and her title dream was snuffed out in just 78 minutes. — AFP
