Jabeur, a quarterfinalist the past three years in a row and a finalist in Charleston last year, defeated Dolehide in one hour and 21 minutes.
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Ons Jabeur advanced to the quarterfinals of the Charleston Open for the second consecutive year after defeating American wildcard Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 7-5, on Thursday. Jabeur has won back-to-back matches for the first time since she advanced to the semifinals of the Adelaide International 1 in January thanks to victories over Lesia Tsurenko in Round 2 and now Dolehide. Jabeur, a quarterfinalist the past three years in a row and a finalist in Charleston last year, defeated Dolehide in one hour and 21 minutes after coming back from a break down in both sets.
Dolehide broke serve to start the match and had a 3-0 lead in the second set when she faced a Top 10 player for just the third time in her career. However, Jabeur won five straight games in the first set and recovered the break in the second set’s arduous seventh game on her fourth attempt. The next opponent for Jabeur will be Anna Kalinskaya, who defeated No. 6 seed Victoria Azarenka in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (5).
“A few points could’ve really changed up the game,” Jabeur said afterwards. “I know with someone like Caroline, you don’t necessarily want to lose your serve because it’s much tougher to break her than any other girls. But I was frustrated. I tried to talk to myself, and just get back to the game, find my rhythm in the return. It could have been worse, but thankfully, I came back and was more focused.”
At the Estoril Open on Thursday, Dominic Thiem put on his best performance of the year, easily defeating American Ben Shelton 6-2, 6-2 to advance to his first quarterfinal of the year. The Austrian won with confidence in the first round against fellow countryman Sebastian Ofner and followed it up with a commanding performance against Shelton. He defeated the American by smashing the ball off both wings, recording his first consecutive tour-level victories since reaching the Antwerp semifinals in October.
“The higher the ball bounces the better for me. Today was great with the warm weather,” Thiem said in his on-court interview following his 63-minute win. “Not windy. The courts are pretty fast and dry and take the spin very well. It suites my game pretty good and I am excited to play the quarter-finals tomorrow. I am playing better and better. Just the results in the first part of the season were not there. This part of the season I love it. The European clay-court season.”
“He was coming up so far last year and this year with great results,” Thiem said when asked about Shelton. “It was only his second match on a clay court. I had a lot of respect going into the match, the way he serves and his athletic abilities. The balls are coming really fast, so I was trying to use my clay-court experience today and it was very good.”
