UAE national team at crossroads after a mixed year

ABU DHABI: Ons Jabeur has reached the last eight of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open with a straight-sets victory over 17-year-old Wakana Sonobe, and on Thursday takes on reigning champion, Elena Rybakina, who came from behind to beat Katie Volynets.

In arguably the performance of the day, the US’ Ashlyn Krueger produced a stunning fightback to beat last year’s runner-up Daria Kasatkina, while Belinda Bencic, Marketa Vondrousova, Leylah Fernandez, Linda Noskova and Magda Linette are also through to the last eight.

Fan-favorite Jabeur had booked her passage to the last 16 with a superb display against Jelena Ostapenko. But she faced a different type of challenge against rising star Sonobe, who had recorded two qualifying wins before defeating Yue Yan in the round of 32. This was just over one week after claiming the girls’ singles title at the Australian Open.

While both players began the match in confident fashion, with Sonobe holding her own for the early part of the first set, her lack of experience against top players soon became apparent as she lost her last three service games in the first set to fall 1-0 down.

While Sonobe broke Jabeur immediately in the second set, the Tunisian former world No. 2 regained her composure and began to dictate play, breaking the Japanese youngster twice on her way to a 6-3, 6-3 victory. She now plays Rybakina in a repeat of the 2022 Wimbledon final.

Looking ahead, Jabeur said: “It’s going to be a tough match. Elena plays really well, and I know she loves playing here on this surface. I will just try to do my best, and focus on myself, and what I can do better on the court.”

Kazakhstan’s Rybakina came from behind to beat Volynets in her first appearance of this year’s tournament. It was a slow start from Rybakina, who dropped the first game of the match on serve, allowing American Volynets to take the first set 6-2.

Rybakina, however, is the current champion for a reason, and her response was both predictable and emphatic, as she bounced back to win the second set 6-4, before taking the third by the same scoreline, getting her defense of the crown off to the perfect start.

While Rybakina is defending the title she won a year ago, the 2023 champion, Bencic, was also in action on Wednesday, with the Swiss star producing the most dominant performance of the day as she swept aside Kudermetova 6-0, 6-0 in just 64 minutes.

Bencic will now face 2023 Wimbledon champion, Vondrousova, who followed up her win over Emma Raducanu with another solid display, this time against Yulia Putintseva, running out a 6-2, 6-3 winner on Stadium Court.

Fernandez, although not quite as dominant as Bencic, booked her place in the quarterfinals courtesy of a comfortable victory over Lulu Sun, who provided minimal resistance, particularly in the first set which the Canadian claimed without losing a game.

Sun improved in the second set, but Fernandez, who was beaten by Coco Gauff at the recent Australian Open, simply produced a series of eye-catching shots for an impressive 6-0, 6-3 victory. She now faces Krueger in the last eight.

Krueger had made a brilliant comeback against Kasatkina. Having won just a solitary game in a one-sided first set, Krueger, 20, recomposed herself and responded in style, eventually securing an outstanding 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory.

In the day’s final two matches, Czech star Noskova, 20, produced a stunning performance to upset Paula Badosa, beating the Spaniard 6-4, 6-1. This sets up a last-eight meeting with Linette, who was awarded a victory via walkover in her tie against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova after she was forced to withdraw.

Stadium Court plays host to all four quarterfinals on Thursday, with Jabeur versus Rybakina undoubtedly the pick of the ties. The pair have met five times in their careers to date, with Jabeur winning three to Rybakina’s two, although one of those victories was the Wimbledon final in 2022.

Vondrousova and Bencic have been in fine form during the tournament so far, meaning their meeting is likely to be an intriguing one, while Fernandez versus Krueger is an opportunity to watch two of tennis’ young talents battle it out for a place in the semifinals.

ISLAMABAD: Growing up in the rugged northern reaches of Pakistan, Anita Karim honed her combat skills fighting with three older brothers who pulled no punches.

The bruising experience prepared her for a career in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) — blending Thai kickboxing, Japanese judo and wrestling — and she is now the nation’s pre-eminent woman fighter.

“The village where I come from, they support women fighters,” she told AFP. “But when I started MMA, they had no awareness of this sport.”

“They said it’s a men’s game exclusively and a woman cannot do that one,” the 28-year-old said.

Eight years ago she won the right to enter the ring, swiftly becoming Pakistan’s first internationally competing woman MMA fighter and appearing in Asia’s biggest promotion, ONE Championship.

“Now misogynistic comments and criticisms have stopped,” she said at her gym in the capital Islamabad, where she trains without heating in the octagonal “cage” where fighters face off.

It is unusual for women to take up sport in deeply conservative Pakistan, where it is often forbidden by families.

But Karim’s native Gilgit-Baltistan region — where female modesty codes are more relaxed — has become an incubator for women’s sport.

In October, two sisters from the region, Maliha and Maneesha Ali, brought back gold and bronze from a taekwondo competition in Indonesia.

Karim’s brother Uloomi, who became her coach after being on the receiving end of her blows, said support began at home.

“When she showed the commitment, the dedication, we knew that she was going to make it,” said the 33-year-old, standing in their family-owned gym.

“We knew that she could take it and we did not have any issues with her training with any guy.”

Surprisingly timid outside the ring, Karim is at the head of a cohort of Pakistani female MMA fighters — five from Gilgit-Baltistan, according to the regional government.

“She’s shy, but when she enters the cage, it’s completely different,” said Uloomi, who has also competed in the sport.

Her speciality is the armlock, deployed with an agonizing all-body grip, which aims to force an opponent to “tap out” in submission before bones are broken or joints wrecked.

In 2022 she was pictured atop a podium in Pakistan with two opponents wearing slings on their injured arms — a performance that earned her the nickname “the arm collector.”

“They could have tapped to stop the fight, but they didn’t, so I went through with it,” she said.

In her hometown, Karim originally trained in taekwondo and jiu-jitsu before discovering MMA at high school in Islamabad — to the consternation of her community back home.

“A lot of people close to me criticized me, but that’s part of the game. Now they know how it works,” she said.

The message emanating from her hometown now is one of pride.

“The way she has made the name of Gilgit-Baltistan and all of Pakistan shine on the international level, serves as a lesson,” said the regional government’s sports chief Shah Muhammad.

After losing on her professional debut in 2018, where the referee refused to let her fight unless she raised her leggings above the knee, she moved to Thailand to train at an MMA academy.

She now earns a living from competition prizes, modest government grants and coaching at her Islamabad gym.

When she returns after competitions, small crowds gather to greet her at the airport and she is followed by a fledgling community of female fighters.

They too want to turn professional in a nation where only one in five women have jobs, according to United Nations figures.

“Anita is a role model for us,” said Bushra Ahmed, a few years Karim’s junior and out of breath as she trains alongside her, another woman and a dozen men.

Karim also wants to “give Pakistani women confidence and self-defense techniques,” with over 80 percent having been victims of public harassment, according to the UN.

Recently she “hit a man who was harassing me in a market in Islamabad,” Karim said.

“He left with his face stained with blood.”