°®Âþµº

Skip to main content

Tunisia's Jabeur beats Halep, reaches Madrid semi-finals

Tunisia's Ons Jabeur beats former world no.1 Halep to reach Madrid semi-finals
Sports
2 min read
04 May, 2022
Tunisian tennis star Ons Jabeur beat former world number one Simona Halep in a 6-3 6-2 in the Madrid Open match, making her way to the semi-finals.
Ons Jabeur beat Romania's Simona Halep in a 6-3 6-2 match in the Madrid Open quarter-finals on Wednesday [Getty]

Tunisian tennis player has reached the semi-final of the Madrid Open after beating the former world number one  Simona Halep, in an exhilarating match on Wednesday.

, who ranks tenth in the world, beat her Romanian counterpart in straight sets- winning 6-3 6-2- in a match played in only one hour and seven minutes. Halep is currently the world's number 20 female player.

The player will face the world’s number 40, Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova on Thursday, where a win could see her in the tournament’s final.

On Monday, Jabeur won the quarterfinal match against Switzerland’s Belinda Becic with two sets to one, coinciding with , which marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Jabeur told reporters: "Today is Eid, so I just wanted to wish all the Muslims Eid Mubarak. I won and it’s a great party for us today. So Eid Mubarak to every Muslim in the world."

Jabeur, who trains in the capital Tunis, became the first ever Arab female tennis player to earn a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) title last year, when she won the 2021 Birmingham Classic.

She is also the highest-ranking male or female Arab tennis player in the sport’s history, and the first to reach the , which was also achieved last year.

MENA
Live Story

In 2020, she became the first Arab woman to reach a grand slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open.

Jabeur was named Arab Woman of The Year in sports in 2019 and was lauded for her Wimbledon tennis racket last July, in a bid to raise Covid-19 relief efforts in Tunisia.