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World number five Ons Jabeur claimed her first title of the season with victory over Belinda Bencic at the Charleston Open.<\/span><\/p>\n Tunisia’s Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2022, beat the Swiss 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Defending champion Bencic played two matches on Sunday, completing a rain-interrupted semi-final against Jessica Pegula before facing Jabeur.<\/span><\/p>\n It is Jabeur’s fourth WTA title and second on clay.<\/span><\/p>\n Jabeur has had a difficult start to the season and struggled with injury following her second-round Australian Open exit in January.<\/span><\/p>\n However, she fought back from a break down in the first set against Bencic before holding her nerve in the second to secure the title.<\/span><\/p>\n She has now won 37 clay-court matches since the start of the 2020 season – the most of any player on the WTA Tour during that time.<\/span><\/p>\n Elsewhere, world number five Casper Ruud beat Miomir Kecmanovic to win the Estoril Open and claim his first title of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n The world number five won five straight games in the first set before Serb Kecmanovic, ranked 40th in the world, took Ruud to a tie-break in the second.<\/span><\/p>\n But the 24-year-old Norwegian held on to win 6-1 7-6 (7-3) in Portugal and halt his poor start to the year.<\/span><\/p>\n Before this week, last year’s French Open and US Open runner-up had won just five of his 11 games in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n