Jabeur now 1st Arab player in WTA 1000 final

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Eighth-seeded Ons Jabeur comfortably defeated qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour Thursday to advance to the final of the Madrid Open.

The 10th-ranked Jabeur, the only top-10 player left in the women’s draw, had lost five of her six matches against Alexandrova from 2016 to 2018. The Tunisian is the first Arab player to reach a WTA 1000 final.

It will be her sixth career final and first since a runner-up finish in Charleston last month.

“This match is going to be different [from the Charleston final],” Jabeur said. “I’m just going to really give my best. I don’t want to regret, saying like, ‘should I have done this, should I have done that.'”

She will face either 12th-seeded American Jessica Pegula or Jil Teichmann, who play later Thursday.

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