Ons Jabeur has admitted she is planning to play at next week's Dubai Championships despite a niggling knee injury causing her last two defeats.
The 2024 Dubai Championships will commence on February 18th and will round off the Middle East swing this year. Jabeur is slated to play at the event as the sixth seed. After skipping the February stretch last year due to injury, she is determined to play in all three events there.
The 29-year-old is a huge and popular figure in this part of the continent. Her legacy as the greatest Arab player of all time is secured. But the Tunisian hasn't played her best tennis in the Middle Eastern tournaments in her career.
Jabeur has never scaled the quarterfinal stage at tournaments in Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Dubai. In the last few days, she has won just once between Abu Dhabi and Doha. She suffered a straight sets defeat to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the UAE and shockingly lost to Lesia Tsurenko in Qatar's capital.
With one tournament to go, Jabeur is not letting her knee issue get in the way of participating at the second WTA 1000 of the season in Dubai. She spoke to reporters in the aftermath of her defeat to the Ukrainian and assured her fans she would play in Dubai after seeing progress on the chronic knee injury.
"Yeah, small problems. Definitely much better than last week, but it's still there, unfortunately. It will not heal in two or three days, but I'm doing my best to heal it, and I think it's going to be very positive for the next weeks. That's the plan (to play Dubai), for sure (smiling)."
The World No. 6 was seen crying during her quarterfinal defeat to Haddad Maia in Abu Dhabi before later revealing that she had been perturbed by the aforementioned injury. Jabeur hopes she will give a good account of herself after losing her second match in a row this season.
"It's frustrating and sad for me to lose here in Doha, because this is a very special place for me. But, you know, I just have to keep being positive and hopefully I will do better the next weeks."
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