Jabeur beats Tauson, sets up Roland Garros quarterfinal meeting with Gauff

No.8 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia moved into the Roland Garros quarterfinals for the second straight year by defeating 72nd-ranked Clara Tauson of Denmark 6-4, 6-4 on Court Suzanne Lenglen on Sunday.

Jabeur, ranked ninth in the PIF WTA Singles Rankings, needed 1 hour and 35 minutes to get past 21-year-old Tauson in their first meeting and match her career-best showing at the clay-court Grand Slam event.

"I think [Tauson] hits the ball really well, really hard," Jabeur said, after the win. "She has a good serve, but today I was trying not to really bother her with my slices and kind of play the whole court. I think it really worked really well because at certain times she didn't know where to move exactly."

A three-time Grand Slam finalist (2022 Wimbledon, 2022 US Open and 2023 Wimbledon), 29-year-old Jabeur has now reached seven Grand Slam quarterfinals in her career. She improves to 7-3 in Round of 16 matches at the Slams.

Gauff awaits: In the quarterfinals, Jabeur will square off against Coco Gauff, the No.3 seed and reigning US Open champion.

Gauff leads their head-to-head 4-2 overall, 2-1 on clay, and 1-0 at Roland Garros. Gauff beat Jabeur 6-3, 6-1 in the 2021 Roland Garros Round of 16, when they were both ranked just outside the Top 20. 

"I love how Coco plays, and I love how Coco talks in general," Jabeur said. "I think she's really mature for her age. She's really an amazing person as well. 

"It's going to be definitely a difficult match. She's such a fighter on the court. I hope I can play good and I can play my game because I know I can bother her as well. But it's going to be definitely a great fight between us."

Red clay momentum: Jabeur has turned around her season at the European clay-court events. She started 2024 losing six of her first eight matches, but she is 8-3 on red clay this year, with a quarterfinal showing at Madrid preceding her Roland Garros run.

"It was obviously a difficult beginning of the year, but it's expected with the hard court," Jabeur said. "It's a bit tougher on my knee. I did a lot of treatment, a lot of rehab.

"I think the clay definitely suits me much better and helps me to move better, but I think, you know, six months of not playing really well [also] did help a lot. In my mind, it's two years."

That form helped Jabeur end Tauson's career-best Grand Slam run at pro level. Tauson, a former top-ranked junior and Junior Australian Open champion, is eyeing a rise in the WTA Rankings after injuries curtailed her rise over the last couple years. Tauson peaked at No.33 in 2022.

Match moments: A rally forehand winner down the line gave Jabeur a quick break for 2-1 in the opening set, but she nearly lost that advantage when Tauson forced her into a 13-minute, 10-deuce showdown in the very next game.

After Jabeur missed out on eight game points, Tauson held a break point to put the set back on serve. However, Jabeur came up clutch with an ace to erase the break point, closed out the battle on her tenth game point, and eased from there to the one-set lead.

In the second set, Jabeur served for the match at 5-4, but she missed out on some key first serves, and she had to face one last break point after one of Tauson’s powerful forehand winners found the court.

But Jabeur fired a forehand of her own down the line to force an error and fend off the break point, and the Tunisian eventually converted her second match point when a Tauson forehand flew wide.

All told, Jabeur got her first serve into play 60 percent of the time, and when she did that, she was rewarded by winning 77 percent of those points. Her 28 winners doubled Tauson's 14.