Ons Jabeur hands Zheng Qinwen Doha defeat

Ons Jabeur clinched her biggest victory in 10 months at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, upsetting Zheng Qinwen, 6-4, 6-2 on Tuesday.

"There was a lot of believing in myself in preparing for this match," Jabeur said on court. "That definitely helped. I tried to stay as focused as I can. It's very tough to play against her; she's a champion. So, I'm very pleased with this win, and I hope I can keep performing even better for the future."

The former world No. 2 has shown glimpses of her best form since the start of the Middle East Swing but saved her best for the No. 7 seed, winning 11 of the match's final 14 games to secure her first Top 10 victory since last April (Madrid, d. Jelena Ostapenko) in 89 minutes on Center Court.

Zheng, the reigning Olympic champion, was playing her first match since a second-round defeat at the Australian Open, after which she alluded to physical issues that hindered her preparation for the first major tournament of 2025. Following a first-round bye, she was set to play Jabeur, a player she’d never lost to in two previous encounters.

But Jabeur arrived on court with plenty of momentum, having pushed 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina to a third-set tiebreaker last week at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open. She kicked off her Doha campaign with a straightforward win over American McCartney Kessler to book a third career meeting with Zheng.

"It's every player's dream to see people chanting like this. Definitely," Jabeur said. "All the Tunisian flags makes this such an honor."

Their last match took place at the 2023 US Open where Jabeur, then ranked fifth in the world, was struggling with illness as Zheng went on to book her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Zheng parlayed that victory into a breakout 2024, highlighted by an Olympic gold medal in Paris and a first major final in Melbourne, but the Chinese star has played just three matches in 2025 and leaves Doha in search of the form that helped her end the year with a runner-up finish at the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

Jabeur shook off a slow start in the opening set, flipping a 1-3 deficit into a winning position as nine of the next eleven games to put herself up a set and 4-1.

As Zheng struggled to win points in the second set, Jabeur, who spent much of the 2024 season struggling with injury, grew in confidence, smacking a forehand winner to earn another break opportunity in the sixth game. A double fault from Zheng handed Jabeur a double-break lead, and the chance to serve out the upset.

Zheng lit up on the brink of defeat, capitalizing on some nerves from Jabeur to save a match point and claw back one of the breaks. But just as Zheng was getting into the match, she was undone by inconsistency and threw in another double fault down match point.

Up next for the three-time Grand Slam finalist is 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who is making the most of her wild card with two victories over countrywomen Ashlyn Krueger (the Abu Dhabi Open finalist) and Alycia Parks.