For Jabeur (27, 10th), this is the second title of his career, after Birmingham in 2021.

Season after season, Jabeur breaks down barriers.

Two years ago, she became the first Arab player to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open 2020, a performance that allowed her to enter the Top 50. Then the last year, the first to be titled on the WTA circuit.

And now, the first to register a WTA 1000 tournament on her record, the equivalent of the Masters 1000 on the men's circuit.

Thanks to this victory, Jabeur will climb to seventh place in the world on Monday.

She will thus equal her best ranking achieved last November.

Two weeks before Roland-Garros (May 22-June 5), the Tunisian leads the dance in the number of matches won on clay, with twelve victories.

She reached the final in Charleston (United States) before the return of the circuit to Europe and the quarter-finals in Stuttgart (Germany).

Remarkable touch

Favorite of the final on Saturday, Jabeur held her rank despite a less good start than her opponent, who led 4 games to 1 in the first set, and ran out of fuel in the second.

From the start of the second set to the start of the third, she lost her serve four times in a row.

The Tunisian with a remarkable touch, however, managed to regain her senses afterwards, and to win in just under two hours, on a winning serve.

775757234 Pierre-Philippe MARCOU AFP

During her ten days in the Spanish capital, Jabeur notably put an authoritative end to the career of Simona Halep, ex-world No.1 now 21st and two-time Grand Slam winner, in the quarter-finals (6-3, 6-2 in 67 minutes).

Jabeur as Pegula played their first final in the WTA 1000 on Saturday. Before the Madrid week, both had peaked in the semi-finals, in Indian Wells last year for the first, in Miami in the spring for the second.

In total, Jabeur was playing his sixth final, Pegula his fourth (a title in Washington in 2019).

Even an unfortunate finalist, the 28-year-old American will climb to the best ranking of her career on Monday, at the gates of the top 10 (11th).

© 2022 AFP