Ons Jabeur news: Madrid Open champion turns her attention to Roland Garros

Lucy Roberts
Ons Jabeur celebrations

Tunisian Ons Jabeur wants to build on the success she’s achieved so far this clay court season after she won the Madrid Open and she’s now set goals for the upcoming Grand Slam in France.

This was her second career title but she also made history as she was the first woman from Africa to win a WTA 1000 event which has catapulted her into No 7 in the rankings – a career high for the 27-year-old.

She’s reached the final 16 on two occasions at the French Open, but she is hoping to build on this in a couple of weeks time and is hoping to at least get to the second week of the competition.

“I always wanted to be in the second week no matter what happens, of course now I have played a lot of great matches on clay, I have more confidence in myself so the goal is to go as far as I can in the French Open,” the Tunisian No 1 revealed to BBC Sport.

“It is the first Grand Slam that I won in the juniors – well the first and only. The French Open has a great story with Tunisian people because it’s really the Grand Slam that everybody follows.

“People were trying to kind of imitate Serena Williams in the generation before me, now it’s amazing to see how people are really just waiting to see me there. I know a lot of French-Tunisians who live in Paris so it’s going to be a great tournament for me.”

Jabeur’s family were in the stands when she won in Madrid last weekend even though she initially didn’t want them to be there in case but she’s been overwhelmed with the support that she’s received.

“I was a little bit superstitious, I didn’t want them to come, I didn’t know if they should be there or not, but I know their support is really amazing, just seeing my box full which never really happened before, was amazing and great emotions for me. I think their support really helped pushed me through the finals,” she added.

“I’ve really received a lot of messages from home and not just Tunisia but the Arab world. That was my goal from the beginning, to really try to inspire more and more players, just to set the goal really high.

“It’s amazing to see how people are following tennis right now, it’s like football in Tunisia now – people were going with their cars celebrating, screaming, dancing and it was a great feeling. It does make me really proud and it’s pushing me right now to do better and behave better on and off court.”

Jabeur plays her opening round match at the Italian Open later today against Sorana Cirstea.

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