Giorgi ousts Jabeur in Eastbourne; faces Ostapenko next

Camila Giorgi continued her recent run of success at the Rothesay International with a 6-3, 6-2 second-round upset of No.4 seed Ons Jabeur on Wednesday.

World No.67 Giorgi of Italy has reached the Eastbourne semifinals in each of the last two seasons. She is now one win away from making it three straight years in the semifinals after ousting sixth-ranked Jabeur of Tunisia in 1 hour and 12 minutes.

Giorgi and Jabeur's lone previous meeting came almost nine years ago in Linz, but the result was exactly the same -- a 6-3, 6-2 win for Giorgi.

The upset marks Giorgi's 17th win over a Top 10 player in her career, and her first of this year. The Italian is back on track on grass after starting this year's grass-court swing with just one win in her first two tournaments on the surface.

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The first six games of Wednesday's clash went against serve before Giorgi finally posted a hold for 4-3. Giorgi took control of the set by breaking again for 5-3 with deep, powerful forehands, and she served out the opener from there. Jabeur never held serve in the first set.

In the opening game of the second set, Giorgi cracked a winning return to break Jabeur for the fifth straight time. Jabeur did eventually hold serve two times in the second set, but she could not make headway on Giorgi's serve again, as the Italian powered her way to victory.

If Giorgi wants to return to the Eastbourne semifinals, she will have to stop the seven-match winning streak of her quarterfinal opponent, Jelena Ostapenko.

Ostapenko has won two of her three previous meetings with Giorgi -- and both of those victories came on grass, including in last year's Eastbourne semifinals.

Latvia's Ostapenko continued her superb grass-court run with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Great Britain's Harriet Dart on Wednesday. Ostapenko, last week's Birmingham champion, took the victory in exactly an hour and a half.

"It was not an easy match, and especially it was super windy today," Ostapenko said afterwards. "After Birmingham, it's completely different conditions, so it was very tough to get used to it. But I think in the deciding moments, I played good and showed my level."

Ostapenko slammed eight aces and saved all three of the break points she faced in her first tour-level meeting with Dart. There was a bit of revenge in Ostapenko's win -- Dart had knocked Ostapenko out in the first round of Junior Wimbledon ten years ago.