Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur beat Daria Kasatkina of Russia 7-5 6-4 in the Viking Classic Birmingham final to win her maiden WTA title and become the first Arab WTA singles champion.
The 26-year-old Jabeur was playing her third career final at the WTA 250 grasscourt event in Birmingham, having previously finished runner-up at the 2018 Kremlin Cup in Moscow to Kasatkina herself and earlier this year at the MUSC Health Women’s Open in Charleston to Astra Sharma.
Playing on a career-high ranking of No.24, this week Jabeur recorded victories over Catherine McNally, Leylah Fernandez, Anastasia Potapova, Heather Watson and finally Kasatkina. These five match wins are increasing Jabeur’s number of wins this season to 28, which is leveling her with Ashleigh Barty as Tour leader in this department.
Jabeur is bidding to become the fourth woman this season to sweep both singles and doubles titles at the same tournament, joining Ashleigh Barty at Stuttgart, Coco Gauff at Parma and Barbora Krejcikova at Roland Garros. The Tunisian is playing the doubles final alongside Ellen Perez against Lucie Hradecka and Marie Bouzkova.
