Roland Garros: Bia Haddad beats Jabeur and goes to the semifinal – 06/07/2023 – Sport

Beatriz Haddad Maia had a hard-fought victory in the 2023 edition of the French Open, over the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, in which she saved a “match point”. She had a hard-fought victory, in the almost four-hour battle with the Spanish Sara Sorribes Tormo.

What she didn’t have at Roland Garros was a victory over an elite opponent. Now she has: she knocked out Tunisian Ons Jabeur, 28, world number seven, a finalist at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.

With a triumph by 2 sets to 1, partials of 3/6, 7/6 (7/5) and 6/1, in two hours and 29 minutes, the 27-year-old Brazilian placed herself among the last four survivors in a dispute of the Grand Slam series, which brings together the four biggest tennis tournaments. No Brazilian had achieved this, in the singles bracket, since Maria Esther Bueno reached the semifinals at the 1968 US Open.

Men included in the count, the fast dates back to 2001, the year in which Gustavo Kuerten won his third championship at Roland Garros. Now, it’s Bia Haddad’s turn to shine on the central court of the Parisian complex, the Philippe Chatrier, where she made her debut this Wednesday (7).

On the stage where Guga punished Sergi Bruguera, Magnus Norman, Àlex Corretja and many others, Bia also appeared with an aggressive mentality. If she wasn’t wearing a brightly colored outfit like Kuerten’s in the 1997 triumph, she repeated, in white, to herself, the self-description she adopted: “I have a quality, which is not giving up”.

That’s how he overcame the setback in the first set, which had multiple breaks of serve, with the tennis players struggling to keep their serve. Jabeur got the last of them, making 5/3, and then served well to close the partial.

The sequence of the game had the opponents much more firm with the initiative of the points, without breaks – Bia saved two “break points” in the 5/5 and lost a “set point” when Jabeur served in 5/6. In the “tiebreak”, the Brazilian was firm and won with a blow from the left.

The Tunisian was already showing signs of tiredness. His short balls were a surprising resource to crutch to shorten the points. Haddad got two breaks and made it 3/0. He took a break then, but soon reacted. And ran over towards 6/1.

Beatriz Haddad Maia is among the last four survivors of Roland Garros, a result that will almost certainly place her in the “top 10” of the world rankings – she arrived in Paris in 14th place. And, as it hasn’t happened in 22 years, it will make Brazilian tennis fans nervously follow a Grand Slam semifinal clash.

The game promises to be even more difficult than the previous ones. Her opponent will come out of the duel between the Polish Iga Swiatek, number one in the world, and the North American Coco Gauff, sixth on the WTA (Association of Professional Tennis Players) list.