Ons Jabeur suffers shock exit from Tunisian tournament

Top seed Ons Jabeur lost to American Claire Liu 6-3 4-6 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Jasmin Open Monastir in her home country of Tunisia. The national heroine’s loss is a big blow for tournament organizers.

After cruising past Ann Li and Evgeniya Rodina in the first two rounds, Jabeur reached her Tour-leading 12th quarterfinal of 2022. The Tunisian was stopped by the world No.73 Liu in the last eight, as the American recorded her first Top 10 win.

The two-time Grand Slam finalist Jabeur is the main reason behind a substantial growth of tennis in Tunisia, so it’s a big disappointment that she hasn’t managed to progress further at the WTA 250 event taking place just 10 miles from her birth…