DUBAI: Ons Jabeur let a lead slip and grimaced in pain as she crashed out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday night, falling in the first round to American Peyton Stearns 6-7(6), 4-6 in front of a vocal Centre Court crowd.
The Tunisian, a former world No. 2 who became the first Arab to reach a Grand Slam final at Wimbledon three years ago, had been forced to miss the past two editions of the Dubai tournament through injury.
Yet she was determined to be a part of this year’s lineup, which marks the landmark 25th anniversary of the women’s event in the emirate.
Enjoying strong support inside the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium with a series of Tunisian flags dotted among the crowd, the three-time Grand Slam finalist raced into the lead, breaking Stearns in the American’s first service game.
Yet she was unable to capitalize and allowed her opponent — ranked 14 places below her at No. 46 — back into the tie after serving a double fault on a break point in the fourth game.
Jabeur even managed to break again and found herself serving for the first set, but failed to close it out, and throwing her racquet on the ground in anger.
During a tight tie-break, another double fault saw Jabeur hand Stearns the momentum at 5-6 and the American went on to convert her first set point to claim the opener.
“Peyton is a really good player,” Jabeur said. “We practice a lot together, more last year and the year before, but yeah, she’s a tough opponent.
“She has a lot to improve for sure, but I see her in a much better ranking than this. I wish her all the best for the future. She handled moments very well during the match and hope she can make it very far.”
Jabeur is a resident of Dubai and was one of the most popular players in a field stacked with 36 of the top 40 women this week.
Understandably then, despite calling a medical timeout to assess her left thigh, she was keen to battle on, saving three break points in the opening exchanges of the second set.
It was not enough though and despite showing the fight for which she has become renowned, her service was broken in the third game and Stearns held on to complete a straight sets win.
“It was pretty tough today,” admitted Jabeur, who arrived in Dubai after quarterfinal runs in both Abu Dhabi and Doha in the past fortnight.
“I wasn’t 100 percent, obviously. I didn’t think I had enough time to recover from both tournaments, but I was there, trying my best. I didn’t want to just retire. I wanted to try more and see how it went.”
On her thigh issue, she added: “It’s nothing really serious. I just wasn’t feeling 100 percent physically. I feel I’ve been tired; I haven’t been sleeping as well as I was hoping to be sleeping.
“It was difficult to really recover from Abu Dhabi, Doha, and now to come here. I felt it was like a long tour for me. I was hoping to really play good here, but unfortunately it wasn’t the case.”
For her part, Stearns — making only her second appearance in the emirate — stood up to the challenge when it mattered most to claim an 11th career win against a top-50 player.
She faces another tough test on Tuesday against No. 7 seed Zheng Qinwen of China.
“I’m super happy with myself that I stayed in the match,” said Stearns. “I fought hard, dug deep, and all that good stuff. Ons is a great player and also a great person. It’s never fun playing those kind of people, but I knew I would need to play well against her.”
Earlier in the day, No. 13 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia was eliminated by Anastasia Potapova 3-6, 0-6 before No. 10 seed Daria Kasatkina also lost 1-6, 6-4 to Romanian wildcard Sorana Cirstea.
Jelena Ostapenko — the winner here in 2022 — also slipped out in the first round, with Japanese qualifier Moyuka Uchijima claiming a memorable 6-3, 6-3 win.
Tuesday will have the eight top seeds get their Dubai 2025 campaigns underway, with all four of the world’s leading players in action on Centre Court.
Reigning Dubai champion Jasmine Paolini meets German qualifier Eva Lys in the day’s first match, before world No. 2 Iga Swiatek faces Victoria Azarenka, and No. 3 seed Coco Gauff takes on fellow American McCartney Kessler.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will be in the last match of the day, when she meets 2022 finalist Veronika Kudermetova.
The 25th edition of the annual WTA 1000 event is running until Feb. 22, before the 33rd staging of Dubai’s ATP Tour 500 tournament from Feb. 24 to March 1.
