“I never stop thinking about Wimbledon” – Jabeur still aspiring for the title she craves most
The Tunisian has finished runner-up in the past two editions of the Championships, including an agonising loss in the final last year to Marketa Vondrousova
Ons Jabeur after losing the 2023 Wimbledon Final (Action Plus/Panoramic)
There were few observers, if any, who didn’t believe that Wimbledon 2023 would belong to Ons Jabeur.
Such was the Tunisian’s authority in her irrepressible return to the final she had so agonisingly lost twelve months previously, it seemed inconceivable that Jabeur would not win it once she got there.
The narrative was perfect. Jabeur, striving to be the first Arab and African woman to win Wimbledon, returning to the scene of her most painful defeat one year on, having reversed the loss in that final by recovering from a set down to defeat Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals before eliminating the favourite for the title – Aryna Sabalenka – in the semi-finals.
When the toughest hurdles had all been cleared, the unseeded Marketa Vondrousova was all that stood in the way of a result that already seemed baked-in to tennis history.
It was as if Jabeur’s divine right to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish had already written the newspaper headlines before the tournament had even started. Of course, then, here she was back in the final just as destiny intended.
Yet sport can be fickle and cruel.
painful loss in 2023 final takes its toll on jabeur
Just hours before that final, Jabeur has since revealed, she suffered a panic attack before going on court.
“The panic attack I had before the final, that messed up the whole thing for me,” Jabeur said in a recent interview with wimbledon.com.
She was a shadow of herself in that match, as the supremely talented Vondrousova exhibited her own mental fortitude to carve out a different narrative path to the one we’d all been traversing, becoming the first unseeded woman in Wimbledon history to lift the title.
“It was tough to manage all the emotions,” Jabeur continued.
“It started slowly during the warm-up and I was trying to do a lot of breathing exercises but it didn’t go away. I wished I had one more day to deal with it all because that wasn’t me on Centre Court playing the final.”
What was unknown to most at the time was that had Jabeur won Wimbledon that day, she and husband Karim had privately planned to start a family. Instead, those dreams have been put on hold while Jabeur continues her quest for a Grand Slam title.
“It was one of the toughest losses I’ve had and it took me a while to recover from that emotionally,” she explained.
“It was really tough for me. I took a small vacation. I was at home with my family. I had a lot of conversations with my husband and with my mental coach as well.
“I was expressing my emotions, my disappointment. I wanted to have a family of my own after winning my first Grand Slam, and I think I was pretty close at Wimbledon last year but I couldn’t quite get there.
“It was tough what happened last year, having that panic attack before playing a Wimbledon final, but I’m here to learn and hopefully I can manage those kinds of experiences better in the future.”
jabeur’s desire to win wimbledon undiminished by past heartache
There are players who never quite recover from the agony of coming so close only to remain so far away. Indeed, last year’s loss hit the Tunisian hard. This was evident in her form over the course of the following months.
Yet, as was the case in 2023, Jabeur is back at SW19 once again to fight for the title she has always coveted more than any other. Instead of dampening the desire to win Wimbledon, a second consecutive year of heartbreak has only strengthened her resolve.
“My feelings about Wimbledon got even stronger after last year,” Jabeur revealed.
“After that experience, winning Wimbledon has become even more of a challenge. I was really disappointed about losing a second Wimbledon final but I had to choose between staying disappointed or switching to a more positive mindset and to motivate myself to come back and win it. For me, I’m trying to move on and think about how to win that beautiful title.
“For me, I’m always thinking about Wimbledon and always trying to adjust my game to play better and be better on the grass.”
Grass-court tennis certainly suits Jabeur’s magnetic game. There is no other surface on which the Tunisian looks quite as assured, on which an unexpected drop-shot will land with quite the same jaw-dropping excellence as Jabeur’s do on grass.
But it is more than that. The dinks, the drop-shots, the wizardry of an acutely angled cross-court backhand slice that draws hushed gasps of astonishment from an adoring crowd. These are all qualities that lend themselves perfectly to the uniquely hallowed, cathedral-like atmosphere of Centre Court.
In short, Jabeur is revered at a venue where reverence is a defining characteristic.
“I feel so loved at Wimbledon. The organisation of the tournament is great. I feel like the people at Wimbledon are amazing. I feel so good on grass, I feel comfortable.
“I feel a connection with the grass and with the place.
“I love everything about Wimbledon.”
This year, Jabeur returns to both the scene of her most bitter defeat and the site of some of her greatest victories.
On the turf where her games thrives the most, Wimbledon’s 2024 narrative sits waiting to be written.
For Jabeur, the difficult closing chapters of past stories do little to dampen her belief that this year’s Championships will end with the fairytale finish she has long dreamed of.
