‘It’s my paradise’: Ons Jabeur’s Wimbledon love affair is marked by frustration as the history-maker searches for more | Tennis News

“Wimbledon is one of those places that is my own paradise,” says Tunisian tennis sensation Ons Jabeur Sky Sportswhile it’s pouring with rain in Nottingham.

This is a remarkable statement considering the scars SW19 has undoubtedly left on the 29-year-old.

In the last two years, Jabeur reached the final twice on Wimbledon’s famous Centre Court, surrounded by strawberries and cream, well-dressed spectators and a vast tennis landscape. However, she lost both times and still waits for her first Grand Slam triumph.

Dubbed tennis’s “Minister of Happiness,” Jabeur has become a firm favourite with British fans. A passionate and approachable professional who wears her heart on her sleeve and is always smiling when competing on the court, she is also extremely popular with her rivals on the tour.

As she returns to London in 2024, Jabeur admits that her inner feelings may be mixed, but her overall opinion of the Wimbledon Championships has not changed at all.

“I think it will be a difficult moment to come back, but also a beautiful moment,” says Jabeur Sky Sports.

“The last time I left the court at Wimbledon, it was really sad and I cried a lot. So I hope those memories don’t come back.

“But I’m really looking forward to playing at Wimbledon. It’s one of those places that is my own paradise.”

“I don’t know (why her connection with the British fans is so strong). Maybe they like my energy, they like everything I share with them. I feel like it’s a really honest relationship with the audience. I love it and I love it every day.”

“I feel really supported and respected here (in the UK) and all I can do is give them really good energy.”

A historian in search of more: The Holy Grail of Tennis

In addition to her two losses in Wimbledon finals, Jabeur also suffered a loss in the US Open final in 2022, as well as a series of quarterfinal exits in her quest for the holy grail, the first Grand Slam for a tennis player.

Born in Ksar Hellal, Tunisia, Jabeur has always played tennis. Her mother introduced her to the sport at the age of three and she became a professional player in her teens.

She reached two French Open junior singles finals in 2010 and 2011, winning the final. This makes her the first African or Arab competitor to win a junior Grand Slam since 1964.

Despite all this early promise, however, it was not until he was 25 that Jabeur really made an impression at a senior Grand Slam.

In fact, Jabeur made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January 2020 – despite being unseeded – where she lost to eventual winner Sofia Kenin in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. This made Jabeur the first Arab woman ever to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

In 2021, she won her first WTA 250 title at the Birmingham Classic on grass and reached the semifinals of Indian Wells. She also reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, which she lost to Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 6-3.

The following year, 2022, proved to be a true breakthrough year for Jabeur at the highest level. Over a 12-month period, she reached two Grand Slam finals, won her first WTA 1000 title at the Madrid Open, her first WTA 500 title at the German Open, and also reached another WTA 1000 final at the Italian Open, where she lost on clay to a force of nature like Iga Swiatek.

Her first Wimbledon final was her first at a Grand Slam, when Jabeur faced Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, making her the first Arab woman in history to reach a Grand Slam singles final, the first African to do so in the Open Era, and the first African in the sport’s history to do so while not representing South Africa.

Jabeur won the first set 6-3 at the All England Tennis Club to move one set away from the final, but then lost the next two sets 6-2 and 6-2 in a crushing defeat that left Rybakina with her first ever Grand Slam victory.

Two months later, Jabeur was back on the highest stage, making it to her first US Open final, but lost 6-2, 7-6 to Swiatek after a devilishly close second-set tiebreak that ended 7-5.

In 2023, she secured her second and third WTA 500 titles at the Charleston Open in the USA and the Ningbo Open in China, while she reached her first quarterfinal at the French Open in June.

After winning the first set of this encounter 6-3 against the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia as the favorite, she lost the second 7-6 (again in the tiebreak 7-5) and the third 6-1 and was eliminated.

A month later, Jabeur’s time seemed near when she went on a tough run to beat Madison Keys and Sabalenka – against the latter she had recovered a set deficit in the semifinals – to reach her second consecutive Wimbledon final, where she would face unseeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova.

Jabeur was under a lot of pressure as the favorite and suffered a devastating 6:4, 6:4 defeat in the final. Like Rybakina the year before, the victory was Vondrousova’s first Grand Slam title.

In addition, it was Vondrousova’s first title in any form in six years (winning the WTA 250 in Lugano in April 2017), and she became the first unseeded women’s singles champion at Wimbledon in the Open Era.

And so we come to 2024. At the French Open this month, old mistakes caught up with Jabeur as she was eliminated in the quarterfinals despite leading by a set to American Coco Gauff, only to lose again in three sets.

Will 2024 be the year she finally conquers Wimbledon?

“I love being on the grass. When I put the shoes on, I feel like a football player stepping onto the field. The energy and the connection with nature is just incredible. It’s always incredible,” she says.

“I always enjoy being here.”

Although she has baggage to carry, her positive attitude and tremendous work ethic bring her closer than ever to tennis’ holy grail, her first Grand Slam triumph.