Ons Jabeur beats Coco Gauff to seal place in Berlin Open final

Top seed Ons Jabeur will face Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the Berlin Open final after the Tunisian saw off American teenager Coco Gauff in straight sets on Saturday.

After grinding out a win when the first set went to a tie breaker, Jabeur kept Gauff under pressure, breaking the teenager three times before converting her second match point.

It brought to an end the 18-year-old's best run yet in a grass-court tournament. “You have to be this good to beat Coco, you know. She's a great player,” Jabeur said after the 7-6, 6-2 win.

Jabuer also insisted she had “no expectations” of her first grass tournament of the season while paying tribute to the Tunisian fans. “Everywhere I go they're always here, they're chanting all the time, it's amazing,” she added.

Jabeur will play her fourth final in a season where she has reached a career-high ranking of fourth in the world and became the first African and first Arab player to win a WTA 1000 event at last month's Madrid Open.

The tournament in Germany is her first since a surprise first-round loss at the French Open to Poland's Magda Linette.