The Minister of Happiness, the Icon of Arab Tennis, and the African Tennis Ambassador are all names of a Tunisian star who, with a lot of will, determination, hard work and perseverance, was able to enter the history of world tennis through the big door with achievements that Tunisian, Arab and African tennis may wait years and years to bring back or repeat.
Amid a turbulent political atmosphere in Tunisia, Ons Jabeur gave her countrymen a “reason to smile” and proved to everyone, that an Arab female player could break into the top 10 in singles.
Jabeur didn't have an easy path at all to reach this spot; "I've been rejected by sponsors because of where I come from, which is so not fair. I didn't understand why before. I accepted it. I dealt with it. I am really proud of the person I became today, just not relying on others." she said.
The Tunisian player jumped 6 places at once in the latest world tennis rankings when she reached eighth position in the world rankings, which is the best ranking in her career and in the history of Arab tennis, both at the level of women and men. This historic and global achievement for the Tunisian champion comes after her recent brilliance in the American Indian Wells Championship and reaching the semi-finals.
Jabeur reached the Chicago final earlier this month and became the first Arab player to win a WTA title when she won the Birmingham title in June.
EARLY START FOR A CHAMPION’S JOURNEY
At the age of three, the first contact between Ons' fingers with the yellow ball began when her mother’s tennis coach Samira Hashafi Al-Hawi entrusted her with the task of collecting the balls. At the age of six, she began playing the game within the "Tennis" club in Hammam Sousse, in the governorate of Sousse on the Mediterranean coast, under the supervision of Coach Nabil Malika.
As a junior, Jabeur also represented Tunisia at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, winning two singles matches and one doubles match, the latter with Romanian Cristina Dinu. She was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Chinese player Zheng Saisai in both competitions. Jabeur also represented Tunisia in singles at the London Olympic Games in 2012, the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016, and the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.
Her biggest success in the junior category was winning the girls' singles title at the 2011 French Open, having lost in the final of the same tournament one year earlier.
Jabeur builds her style of play around variety and hitting what she refers to as "crazy shots". She tries to employ difficult shots because that is how she enjoys playing tennis. She likes to utilize slice and drop shots in particular. Jabeur likes to play on any surface.
Twenty-seven year old Ons (born on August 28, 1994) won eleven singles titles and one doubles title in the ITF women's tournaments, and in September 2019 she reached her highest Singles ranking at No. 51 globally, and in May of the same year she reached No. 241 in the Doubles rankings.
Jabeur was one of 12 players who received an International Player Grand Slam Grant from the Grand Slam Development Fund in 2017 immediately before the French Open, where she won her first two career Grand Slam main-draw matches. She was endorsed by Qatar Airways in 2020.
In 2018, she reached the final of the Kremlin Cup in Russia, and was the first Arab player to reach the final in the WTA tournaments.
Jabeur won the 2019 Arab Women of the Year award in the sport category, having reached the third round of the US Open and established herself as a permanent fixture in the top 100 that year.
Jabeur is married to Karim Kamoun, a Russian-Tunisian former fencer who has also served as her fitness coach since mid-2017. She is fluent in Arabic, English, and French, and is learning Russian as her husband speaks the language.
A new victory for Ons not only opened the doors for her to be among the top 10 in the world, but coincided with a new number, topping the ranking of the players who achieved the most victories in 2021 with 47 victories, in addition to occupying eighth place in the women’s final round race with 2845 points, surpassing Japanese Naomi Osaka in The Final Masters Round Finals (a tournament held at the end of each season with the participation of the eight top-ranked champions and organized by the World Tennis Association). The WTA has announced that the Mexican city of Guadalajara will host this year's WTA Finals.
