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Ons Jabeur has announced that she is withdrawing from Zhengzhou due to a knee injury. Jabeur, seeded at No 4, had a first-round bye in Zhengzhou before kicking off her campaign at the tournament on Thursday with a 6-3 7-6 (5) win over Lucia Bronzetti.
Just hours after beating Bronzetti and setting up a quarterfinal meeting against Daria Kasatkina, Jabeur withdrew from Zhengzhou due to a knee issue. In her statement, world No 7 Jabeur expressed hope to return to the tournament next year. "I'm so sorry that I have to withdraw because my knee is not feeling so great, and I just want to say I loved my time here in Zhengzhou and hopefully I can come back next time.
Thank you fans, thank you for cheering for me. Hope to come back next year," Jabeur said in a statement.
Unfortunately, after an amazing fight, @Ons_Jabeur is forced to withdraw due to a knee injury. 😔
Get well soon, Ons!We absolutely loved having you around! 🫶🏻❤️ pic.twitter.com/q9zrjSVUZt — Zhengzhou Open (@ZhengzhouOpen) October 12, 2023
Jabeur started her Zhengzhou campaign with a win before withdrawing
On Thursday, Jabeur started her Zhengzhou campaign when she took on world No 63 Bronzetti.
Against Bronzetti, Jabeur dropped her service in the first game of the match before responding with back-to-back breaks to win the next three games and take a 3-1 lead. In the fifth game, Bronzetti got the break back, but Jabeur kept her focus and broke the Italian again in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead.
Up by a break, Jabeur held on to her service for the remainder of the first set to go up by a set on Bronzetti. The second set between Jabeur and Bronzetti was quite something as Jabeur was up by two breaks and had a 5-2 lead.
At that point, it looked Jabeur was cruising toward sealing a routine straight-set win over Bronzetti. But then, Bronzetti got both breaks back to tie the second set to five games apiece - the Italian saved a match point in the 10th game.
Jabeur ended Bronzetti's run in the 11th game when she broke the Italian for a 6-5 lead but then again failed to serve out for the match after blowing three match points in the 12th game. In the second-set tie-break, Bronzetti had a 5-4 lead before Jabeur won the next three points to win the set and complete a two-set win.