After Cementing Her Stature as a ‘Top Player’, WTA Star Ons Jabeur Opens Up on a Brutal Disparity That Continues to Plague Tennis

In today’s world, perhaps the speaker is more important than the speech – ask Tunisian WTA star Ons Jabeur, and she would agree! The opinions of people with greater influence and power become invariably more credible than those of others in the eyes of the media and the masses. And the world of sports is no exception.

A perfect representative of the Arabian and African population, Ons Jabeur has made her way up the ranks on the WTA tour and established herself as an important figure in recent years. Currently placed at number 7 in the WTA rankings, Jabeur is a consistent performer in major tournaments. With much fame and recognition as a top player, the Tunisian’s opinions now have weight and value. However, she is wise enough to look through the irony of it all.

Ons Jabeur opens up on the unjust privilege of being a top-10 player

The 29-year-old WTA star has established herself as a top-draw performer in recent years. Jabeur became the first Arabian player in history to reach a grand slam final last year when she battled Elena Rybakina for the Wimbledon title. She attained a career-high ranking of world number 2 in June 2022 and announced her arrival on the very big stage in women’s tennis.

As her stature grew as a professional tennis player, her words started to gain more importance, which, according to her, wasn’t the case a few years back. Jabeur recently shed light on this disparity and voiced her displeasure about it.

The official X (formerly Twitter) account of The Tennis Letter tweeted what the world number 7 had to say regarding the same, “Before, if I talked, nobody would listen bc I wasn’t in the top 10 & I wasn’t a top player, but now they listen. Now they would care about my opinion. I feel like it’s wrong to only listen to the top players, but for me, I feel like I need to make a difference right now. I need to speak up for every woman about what’s wrong & what could be better.”

Meanwhile, Ons Jabeur is continuing to reach landmarks in her career and build her legacy even further. She recently achieved a historic feat that would make the Arab world proud.

READ MORE: Braving Through the US Open Battling Illness, WTA Star Ons Jabeur Opens Up on a Grueling Examination of Her Unrelenting Strength

Jabeur crosses yet another milestone

The 2023 Wimbledon finalist breached the top 10 for the first time in 2021, thereby becoming the first-ever Arab tennis player to do so, male or female. But Ons Jabeur wasn’t satisfied with just that. Last week, she completed a whopping 100 weeks as a top 10 WTA player, an incredible achievement and a first for any player from Arab or Africa.

She is, indeed, a trailblazer and pathbreaker in the truest sense of the term. Her pioneering success has made the sport of tennis a household name in some of the remotest parts of the world.

Therefore, in many ways, her influence and impact aren’t just limited to the sporting world. But sadly, as she pointed out, all the attention and validation came after she championed insurmountable odds and reached where she is today – not while she was trying to make a name for herself in a world as competitive as professional tennis.

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