Jabeur tops on grass again, wins Berlin title

DPA/WTABerlin Top seed Ons Jabeur won the Berlin grass court WTA tournament on Sunday when her opponent, Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, retired with injury early in the second set.Eighth seed Bencic suffered the left leg injury in the last game of the first set. She continued heavily taped after an injury time-out but called it quits after the third game of the second set in which she served three double faults.Jabeur, 27, was leading 6-3, 2-1 at the time in stifling heat on the Steffi Graf Court.It was the third career title and second of the year for Tunisia’s Jabeur who will reach a career-high number 3 in the world rankings on Monday."We didn’t want to end the match this way,” said Jabeur, who had tended to Bencic immediately after her injury before the two also had a long embrace and chat at the net when Bencic retired.Naming Bencic "a fighter”, Jabeur added "I am certain you will be ready for Wimbledon” which starts on June 27.Jabeur raced off to a 4-1 lead before Bencic made her presence felt.She fought back to 4-3, dropped serve again in the next game and missed three break points at 5-3 as Jabeur clinched the set.Switzerland’s Bencic held serve in the opening game of the second but it was all over for her two games later as she finished runner-up as 12 months ago in the German capital.Jabeur and Bencic had played three times before, all on clay, with Bencic leading the head-to-head 2-1 coming into Sunday.The pair had already met twice this year: Bencic defeated Jabeur in the Charleston final, and Jabeur exacted revenge en route to her Madrid title.Jabeur now has two grass-court titles to her credit: she became the first Arab woman to claim a singles title when she prevailed on the lawns of Birmingham last season. Jabeur has been even more prolific this year, as she has reached finals in four of her last six events.