Ons Jabeur narrowly misses out on Lexington Open semifinals
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Tunisian Ons Jabeur suffered a dramatic late collapse against American teenager Coco Gauff to crash out of the Lexington Open on Saturday. /WTA

Tunisian Ons Jabeur suffered a dramatic late collapse against American teenager Coco Gauff to crash out of the Lexington Open on Saturday. /WTA

Tunisian Ons Jabeur suffered a dramatic late collapse against American teenager Coco Gauff to crash out of the Lexington Open on Saturday.

The eighth seed who led by a set and 4-2 in the second one eventually lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in one hour 58 minutes.

After breaking Gauff in the third game of the opening set, the rest of the set went with serve with the Tunisian not dropping a point in the final game to claim the set 6-4.

In the second set's first five games, Jabeur dropped her serve once while Gauff dropped hers twice but, crucially, Jabeur failed to convert a break point at 40:30 in the seventh game and Gauff went on to level the set at 4-4. Gauff then broke the Tunisian's serve again in the eighth and tenth games to win the second set 6-4.

Jabeur managed to hold serve in the second game of the third set saving four break points but then dropped serve in the fourth and sixth games allowing Gauff to win the deciding set 6-1.

Jabeur, who currently enjoys a career best ranking at 39, will aim to improve the consistency of her first serve which she struggled with later on in the match.

In her previous match, Jabeur admitted that she had been unable to find her rhythm at the start as the lengthy time out from competition due to COVID-19 had affected her.

(With input from World Tennis Association)