'I've worked hard for this', says history-making Jabeur

Issued on: 05/07/2021 - 

Tunisia's Ons Jabeur reached the Wimbledon women's quarter-finals with an impressive three set win over Poland's 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek

 Adrian DENNIS AFP

London (AFP)

Ons Jabeur's historic Wimbledon campaign saw her reach the women's quarter-finals on Monday, beating Poland's 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in their fourth round match.

The 26-year-old is the first Tunisian woman to reach the last eight at Wimbledon and will face Belarus second seed Aryna Sabalenka who defeated Elena Rybakina 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Sabalenka will be playing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final.

Jabeur celebrated victory with a fist pump and a yell of delight but for once she was not a lone Tunisian voice as some spectators burst out into song.

"Tunisians are everywhere, I got to say," she said.

"Yeah, they were singing actually a football song. I felt the need to sing with them also.

"I felt so happy that I wanted, like, to hear more. I was doing like this to hear them (cupping a hand to one ear)"

Jabeur's exploits in the past few weeks have give huge momentum to her mission to encourage more Arab women, especially North African, to take up the sport.

She admitted, though, that to get to where she is now has taken a lot of resilience to overcome setbacks.

"Maybe one of them was 2018, I started really bad the season, winning no matches," she said.

"I was doubting myself a lot. I think early in my career, after the juniors, when I didn't see the results that I wanted, when I was seeing the juniors that I played with breaking the top 50, top 40,it was very difficult for me.

"I've worked hard to earn my place here."

- 'Carry this message' -

However, with her maiden WTA title under her belt -- the first Arab woman to achieve that -- and now her run to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon she could not have done more to raise the profile of herself and her broader goal.

"It is very important to me," she said.

"I have seen it, heard it, a lot of times coming here on tour from where I come, I need to gain my respect either with the players or anyone around here.

"I just want to give the example for many generations coming from North Africa, from my country, from the African continent, that it's not impossible, that we can do it.

"I'm trying to carry this message for a very long time. Hopefully it is working."

Jabeur showed great poise to stay in the match after she let slip a 5-4 lead and serving for the first set only for the Pole to reel off three games on the bounce.

Swiatek, after a flat opening, had taken note of a young Polish fan holding up a board inscribed 'Jazda Iga' ('Come on Iga').#photo1

"It was a great match and I had to stay calm rather than get angry when I failed to close out the first set as getting angry would not have helped my cause," said Jabeur.

"Today I decided to change my game a bit as everyone knows I am doing drop shots and being aggressive was key today."

Jabeur never looked back once she had got over the loss of the first set.

Breaking her 20-year-old opponent in the first game of the second set set the tone for the rest of the encounter.

Indeed such was her dominance that Swiatek at one point having been out-witted by a Jabeur drop shot smashed the top of the net angrily with her racquet.

© 2021 AFP

Tunisia’s Jabeur first Arab woman to reach Wimbledon’s last-16

The 26-year-old Tunisian beat former champion Muguruza on Friday and will take on 2020 French Open champion Swiatek next.

In the second round, Jabeur also beat former world number one Venus Williams 

[Peter Nicholls/Reuters]

3 Jul 2021

Trailblazing Tunisian Ons Jabeur has become the first Arab woman to reach the last-16 at Wimbledon.

The 26-year-old tennis player showed her fighting qualities and a great range of shots on Friday, coming back from a set down to beat 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 26 minutes.

Jabeur will take on 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek next.

In the second round, Jabeur also beat former world number one Venus Williams.

“Honestly, she’s just breaking down barriers. The first woman from her country to do anything that she’s doing,” Williams said about Jabeur. “She’s inspiring so many people, including me.”

Jabeur was so nervous when she moved to two match points she knelt down and was physically sick in the corner of Centre Court at the end where the Duchess of Cambridge was sitting in the Royal Box.

“I’m actually having a problem with my stomach,” she said at her press conference after her win over Muguruza.

“I have an inflammation. It has been going on for a while … It bothers me probably with the stress, fatigue, everything. Sometimes when I drink water, the water doesn’t go through any more. That’s why I get sick.”

Muguruza saved that match point but Jabeur made no mistake when she secured a second one and fell on her back in celebration, getting back up to a standing ovation.

Since reaching the quarter-finals of the 2020 Australian Open, she has gone from strength to strength, reaching two French Open last 16s and now Wimbledon.

It was another landmark performance by Jabeur who last month became the first Arab woman to win a WTA Tour title, winning on grass at Birmingham.

She said it was the “best day of her career,” and the significance of it for the Arab world was immense.

“It means a lot,” she said. “Especially so many Arab people watching me and supporting me. I’ve received a lot of messages from different people … It’s amazing. But I don’t want the journey to stop here. I want it to continue.

“I mean, hopefully whoever is watching, I hope that so many of the young generation is watching, and I can inspire them. Hopefully one day I could be playing with a lot of players next to me.”