ENJOYING a mid-career purple patch, Tunisian Ons Jabeur‘s season continues to go from strength to strength. Since the Hobart International, Jabeur is 10-3 with scalps including Johanna Konta, Caroline Wozniacki, Qiang Wang and Alison Riske – all top 30 players of the last 12 months. Now Jabeur adds world number three, Karolina Pliskova to that list after defeating her in the Round of 16 at the Qatar Open.

Jabeur won 6-4 3-6 6-3 in an hour and 47 minutes, crucially breaking at 3-2 in the third set to hold serve twice more and claim the victory. Jabeur served five aces and won 72.9 and 66.7 per cent of her first and second serve points respectively, while saving four of a possible six break point opportunities for the Czech. The Tunisian broke three times herself from 10 opportunities, and capitalised off Pliskova’s second serve, winning 58.3 per cent of the points. Ranked 77th at the end of 2019, Jabeur had already bolted up to a career-high 44th in the world entering Doha, but is up to 38th on the live rankings having booked a spot in the final eight – and could move to 31st if she knocks off eighth seed Petra Kvitova in the quarter finals.

Kvitova made it to the last eight with a three-set win over Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko. Winning 6-2 5-7 6-1, Kvitova was inconsistent at times in the second set, but showed what she was capable of in the first and third sets. Arguably the most stunning performance was ninth seed Aryna Sabalenka‘s complete obliteration of Greek 15th seed, Maria Sakkari. The Belarusian took just 53 minutes to see off Sakkari and book a spot in the next round against Zheng Saisai who defeated seventh seed, Kiki Bertens in three sets, 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Garbine Muguruza set up a quarter finals clash with world number one Ash Barty after downing Ukrainian teenager, Dayana Yastremska 6-2 6-4 in 70 minutes. Though her match was quick, it was nothing compared to Barty’s, with the Australian not even needing to take the court as her in-form opponent Elena Rybakina had to retire prior to the match. The Kazakhstan three-time finalist and one-time title holder this year was not the only retiree prior to a Round of 16 match however, with Amanda Anisimova also needing to retire, handing Svetlana Kuznetsova a walkthrough to the last eight. The Russian takes on fourth seed, Belinda Bencic after the Swiss talent defeated Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 6-4 6-3.

ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[1] A. Barty (AUS) defeated E. Rybakina (KAZ) W/O
O. Jabeur (TUN) defeated [3] K. Pliskova (CZE) 6-4 3-6 6-3
[4] B. Bencic (SUI) defeated Y. Putintseva (KAZ) 6-4 6-3
S. Zheng (CHN) defeated [7] K. Bertens (NED) 3-6 6-3 6-4
[8] P. Kvitova (CZE) defeated J. Ostapenko (LAT) 6-2 5-7 6-1
[9] A. Sabalenka (BLR) defeated [15] M. Sakkari (GRE) 6-3 6-0
[11] G. Muguruza (ESP) defeated D. Yastremska (UKR) 6-2 6-4
S. Kuznetsova (RUS) defeated A. Anisimova (USA) W/O