She won the final seven games after breaking serve four times. In winning, Jabeur scored 25 goals, more than double Haddad Maia's tally of 11.
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Third seed Ons Jabeur defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix quarterfinals with a commanding score of 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the semifinals. In their initial match at tour-level, Jabeur eliminated the World No. 14 in just 68 minutes. She won the final seven games after breaking serve four times. In winning, Jabeur scored 25 goals, more than double Haddad Maia’s tally of 11. Haddad Maia only had one ace to her five. Jabeur defeated World No. 14 Haddad Maia to earn her third victory of the year and 30th career victory over a Top 20 player.
“I don’t think my coach could tell me anything for today,” Jabeur said. “She’s an amazing player, but I think I really played my ‘A’ game today. I’m very happy with the way I played, especially in the second set, very relaxed and making the right choices.”
After the first set ended at 2-2, Jabeur won 10 of 11 games. Haddad Maia saved two break points by herself in the fifth game after missing break points in each of her first two service games. In the entire match, she only encountered those two break points. The last time Jabeur and Haddad Maia met was in 2016 at a French ITF competition in Joué-lès-Tours. At the time, Jabeur was ranked at No. 197 and Haddad Maia at No. 275, both of which are significantly outside the Top 100.
Jabeur has advanced to her second clay-court semifinal of the spring and third overall. Having lost in the quarterfinals the previous year, this is her first appearance in the final four in Stuttgart. Six of her seven victories in a row came in straight sets for the Tunisian. Her only set loss occurred in her opening match in Stuttgart, where she overcame a set down to defeat Jelena Ostapenko.
Aryna Sabalenka rallied from a set and a break down to defeat wild card Paula Badosa 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, and advance to the semifinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix for the third consecutive year. She will then go up against Anastasia Potapova, who defeated Caroline Garcia, the No. 4 seed, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. The 2-hour, 30-minute match ended with Sabalenka defeating Badosa 7-6(5), 6-4, just as she had done in the tournament’s quarterfinals the year before, tying the Spanish player on victories with two.
The winner of the Australian Open has reached her fourth semifinal in six matches this season, improving her overall 2023 record to 22-3.
“I was just talking to myself and saying, OK, just try one more time, just try to put the ball back, and then run and move and try to win this game and probably you can win this set. Then who knows what’s gonna happen in the third set? Definitely that game was the key game.”
