'Hiding My Emotions Will Not Make Me Feel Good': Jabeur Addresses On-Court Mindset

| by Nurein Ahmed

Ons Jabeur recently discussed concerns that she has been showing a lot of emotions on the court to the detriment of her performances.

The Tunisian is back in the Middle East, where she is considered a major stalwart and a trailblazer. Several aspiring tennis players in this part of the world consider Jabeur as their idol. And there is no logic to dispute that.

Jabeur is the most successful Arab player in history, having captured five career titles and contested three Grand Slam finals already. But she has been frank about stumbling at the final hurdle, most notably at the 2023 Wimbledon Championship, where she was driven into tears during her runner-up speech.

The 29-year-old later revealed that she had been planning to get a baby if she had won last year's Wimbledon, so the defeat to Marketa Vondrousova ended up being a bitter pill to swallow to delay those plans.

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Recently, at the Abu Dhabi Open, Jabeur got so emotional during her quarterfinal defeat to Beatriz Haddad Maia and was seen weeping midway through the second set. She was asked by reporters ahead of her second-round match in Doha why she lets emotions take control of her.

"I honestly don't think about it much. I'm an open book, an emotional person. I like to show myself. One thing I have learned is to accept the emotion, and if I try to hide it, it will not make me feel good."

"So it's good to let it out and be done with it than to keep it inside and probably will make more problems for you later. So for me, I really try to be myself, really try to show myself to the crowd and connect with them in the most visible way."

Jabeur also clarified that her knee is still bothering her and is in a race against time to recover and play at the Qatar Open. It emerged that she had been struggling with the injury, which she tried to manage at the Abu Dhabi Open this past week.

"I mean, yeah, it's the sport, it's tennis. I have been struggling with the knee for a long time, and last week was very, very tough. Hopefully I can recover in time and then play better here in Doha."

Jabeur will play Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko in the second round in Doha, with the match expected to take place on Tuesday. The head-to-head is tied at 1-1, although it is the fourth seed who won their most recent clash at the 2023 Charleston Open in straight sets.

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