Ons Jabeur recently reflected on the turning point in her career that catapulted her to a top 10 ranking on the WTA tour.
Jabeur is the highest-ranked African and Arab tennis player in WTA and ATP rankings history. In June 2022, she achieved a career-high ranking of No. 2 on the WTA tour. She is currently ranked No. 6.
Ons Jabeur and Egyptian tennis player Mayar Sherif were guests on the recent episode of ‘Abtal’ podcast, hosted by Reem Abulleil.
Jabeur opened up about the turning point in her career, narrating how it began in 2019 when she was playing good tennis and ranked between 30 to 50 on the WTA Tour. However, she grew frustrated with consistently losing against top 10 players because she believed she could be among them.
“For me, there was a certain turning point in 2019, I was playing good, I had a good ranking around 50 or 30 and I looked at my coach and I was like I’m sick of losing against top 10 players even though I know that I can be a top 10 player,”
Jabeur said (18:15)
Continuing, she stated that she beat them a couple of times and believed her level was at the top 10 on the WTA tour. She set a goal to be a top 10 player and resolved within herself that she would do everything to get there. That was when her mentality changed, and she reached the quarterfinals of the 2020 Australian Open.
“I’ve beaten them so many times, and I believe my level is there. As soon as I said I want to be a top 10 player, that became my goal. I’m going to do everything for it. For some reason, my mentality changed, and doors started opening in front of me. I met some people along the way who helped me a lot.
The turning point was when I made the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, the first time I went deep into the second week. That was a changing point, and the moment I decided ‘enough is enough,’ many things changed for me,” Jabeur said
