Ons Jabeur, 5th player in the world, finalist of the last Wimbledon, qualified first for the round of 16 of the US Open on Friday, overthrowing 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 the American Shelby Rogers ( 31st).
The 28-year-old Tunisian, who is entering this stage of the event for the first time, will be opposed to the Russian Veronika Kudermetova (18th), who crushed the Hungarian Dalma Galfi (91st) 6-2, 6-0.
She started her match quite badly, showing a lot of clumsiness (22 unforced errors in the first set, out of 34 in total), certainly attacked by Rogers, quarter-finalist in 2020, who broke her three times.
But Jabeur, who is having his best season, as evidenced by his titles gleaned in Berlin and Madrid, then tightened his game, gaining precision in the exchanges, before seizing the opportunity in the 9th game to convert his only break point of the second run, then won.
The third set was initially a formality.
The Tunisian immediately took Rogers' serve to escape 5-1, before being unbroken once.
She nevertheless ended up winning, after her sixth match point, as in their first two confrontations, in Taipei in 2017 then Cincinnati in 2019.
“It was a pretty crazy game, Shelby played really well.
Even at 5-1, she made things difficult for me, I am very happy to have continued to fight until the end”, reacted Jabeur on the Louis Armstrong court.