Second-seeded Ons Jabeur (Tunisia) is the new WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open champion. The Tunisian tennis player defeated the fourth-seeded Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) in the final by 2-0 (7:6, 6:4) in two hours of play.
Belinda Bencic had a two-day match in the semi-finals versus top-seeded Jessica Pegula (USA), which was interrupted at the tiebreak of the second set. However, the Swiss player succeeded to win it and qualified for the final, which started a few hours later.
Ons Jabeur qualified for the final after a straight-set victory versus Daria Kasatkina (Russia) by 2-0 (7:5, 7:5), but definitely, the match was quite exhausting for her.
Belinda Bencic started the final with a break and took a lead of 2:0. Both players did not have a single breakpoint by the 10th game when the Swiss player was serving for the match. The Ons Jabeur received her first breakpoint in the set and won it to equalize the score to 5:5. She won her next serve game and Belinda Bencic served, losing the first 3 points in the game and giving 3 set points to her opponent. However, she saved them, but the game was not over and the Swiss player needed to save two more break/setpoints before finally winning it and turning the set into a tiebreak.
Belinda Bencic reached two set points in the tiebreak, but Ons Jabeur saved them and finally closed the tiebreak by 8-6 to win the set.
The second set started with an exchange of breaks in the beginning. However, Ons Jabeur won three consecutive games with two breaks and took a lead of 4:1. She suffered a break, but her lead was quite enough and finally she won the set by 6:4.
Thus, Ons Jabeur took revenge on Belinda Bencic, who defeated her in the final of the tournament last year. This is also her first title this season.