Jabeur books return to final at rainy Charleston

Second-seeded Ons Jabeur booked a return to the WTA final in Charleston on Saturday, but she’ll have to wait to learn her opponent after rain halted the second semi-final.

Jabeur, who finished runner-up to Belinda Bencic on the green clay courts of South Carolina last year, said a rain delay of more than three hours proved advantageous in her 7-5, 7-5 victory over third-seeded Daria Kasatkina.

But the second semi-final, between top-seeded American Jessica Pegula and fourth-seeded Bencic was also interrupted, and with heavy weather expected to linger, play was halted for the night with their match in a second-set tiebreaker.

Bencic had won the first set 7-5, but the second was knotted at 6-6 with Pegula up 4-2 in the tiebreaker when the match was stopped as the light rain that had fallen through several games intensified.

Jabeur, runner-up last year at Wimbledon and the US Open, reached her first final of 2023 with her victory over Kasatkina.