"I had some help from a few animals" admits Ons Jabeur after Madrid triumph
WTA
Ons Jabeur became the champion of the 2022 Madrid Open, and after her win, she revealed that she received help from 'a few animals.'
In the 2022 Madrid Open final, Jabeur faced Jessica Pegula, who was the twelfth seed at the event. The Tunisian appeared unstoppable in the Spanish capital, and she proved it with a superb three-set triumph in under two hours in the final to become the first Arab woman to win a WTA 1000 trophy.
Speaking after her victory, Jabeur admitted that early on, she had to dig deep to even reach the final, but once she did, she felt mentally ready for the challenge ahead.
"It started with me not adjusting very well to the conditions. Then, a few keywords, like 'digging deep.' That I had to do in the first matches and also other matches. 'Revenge' is also something that I had to do in three matches."
"It's crazy because I knew I'm playing really good and have the level to win any tournament. But sometimes a few things were missing, and it wasn't there. But this tournament didn't feel great at the beginning, and then it was really good. The final, I had to really get ready mentally for it."
The Tunisian player also provided an interesting insight into how she motivated herself for some of the matches. She revealed that she used playing cards, with each having a message that she used as a guide to her victory.
"I had some help from a few animals. I was fooling around, playing with cards. And I was like: 'I'm going to try to pick a card each day.' It's animal cards and the animal had a message on it. I used it."
"When I picked up the card, I said, 'OK, what should I do to win tomorrow?' One animal told me to dig deep. One of the animals actually told me that I'm playing a legend."
"It was Simona [Halep]. It was perfect. One animal told me to use my intelligence to be ready, and one animal told me to take action. So it was the perfect card each time I picked it up."
"I actually did this once, but it wasn't with that with animals. It was in Chicago. I had this book, 21 lessons about tennis, and I flipped the book and then opened a random page and it said what tennis could teach you, and then I used that. I think it worked better here in Madrid. Thank you, my animal friends, for helping me."
