'This is where I feel amazing' - Ons Jabeur begins quest for Wimbledon title

After successive final defeats, Tunisian star gets her mission to go one better at SW19 off to a great start with a straight-sets win over Moyuka Uchijima

Ons Jabeur practising at the All England Club ahead of the Wimbledon Championships. PA

Sat in the All England Club’s media centre, Ons Jabeur was asked about her approach to setting goals for this year’s Wimbledon.

Two years ago, the Tunisian set a photo of the Wimbledon trophy as the lockscreen on her phone, hoping to manifest a run to the title. She came ever so close to achieving that, making it all the way to the final before she fell to Elena Rybakina.

Twelve months later, she reached the final again but lost to Marketa Vondrousova. Usually a firm believer in vocalising her goals, Jabeur first deflected with a joke before giving an answer.

“What I’m doing right now – maybe that’s why I lost the two finals – I’m eating more strawberries here. I feel like I missed a little bit of strawberries,” said the world No 10 with a chuckle. “I’m taking it one match at a time. I try to enjoy it; it’s been a bit tough.

“If I make it a third year in a row to the final, that would be like a dream. I know I have a big capacity of doing it, I’ve been working on myself a lot. I can see myself winning this tournament hopefully.”

She took a step in the right direction on Tuesday by breezing through her first-round match against Moyuka Uchijima of Japan with a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

A few hours hours after Jabeur spoke in the media centre, American world No 2 Coco Gauff was asked if she could name some of the players she admired most on tour. After hailing the mentality of world No 1 Iga Swiatek, Gauff named Jabeur.

“I think she's the nicest person and such a competitor on and off the court. I think Ons is somebody that was one of the first players to be super nice to me when I was 15 coming on tour,” Gauff recalled.

When Jabeur broke down in tears during the trophy ceremony after she lost a second straight Wimbledon final last year, she captured the hearts of tennis fans worldwide, who felt her pain and were moved by her emotions. Back at SW19 searching for a maiden Grand Slam title once again, Jabeur is feeling the support everywhere she goes.

Aryna Sabalenka, left, and Ons Jabeur of Tunisa take a selfie during practice prior to Wimbledon 2024. Getty Images

“This year I feel like sharing the dream of Wimbledon, probably with millions of people, which is so amazing to see; I saw so many fans and they were like, ‘We’re rooting for you, this year is your year’,” she told The National.

“I feel like people are waiting for that. It’s kind of a good pressure. I always try to remember that this is the place where I belong, where I play amazing and where I feel amazing. So I’m just going to enjoy every moment that I’m here at Wimbledon and hopefully it will be the right year.”

Jabeur has had a tough time since losing that 2023 final. Between dealing with the aftermath of that match and struggling through a recurring knee injury, the always smiling Tunisian – famously dubbed the 'Minister of Happiness' back home – looked unhappy on court, unable to show her flair or string together multiple wins in a row.

That seemed to change in Madrid two months ago, where she picked up three consecutive victories for the first time this season to reach the quarter-finals. The former world No 2 recaptured her joy after months of pain and uncertainty.

“One thing that I managed to experience, and I wasn’t fully aware of it, is like, when I’m healthy and I can move, I can do anything I want and that’s what happened in Madrid,” reflected Jabeur.

“I just realised that being injured with my knee didn’t help me being me on the court and it affected me more than I expected. I thought that even with one leg that I could play but I was completely wrong.

“It’s just like the joy of being able to move, being able to just be me on the court, was really important. That’s why I was enjoying playing, because I felt like it’s really me on the court. That gave me more hope and encouraged me to do better and better in the future.”

Ons Jabeur embraces Moyuka Uchijima following her 6-3, 6-1 victory over the Japanese in her opening round match at Wimbledon. AFP

In a sport like tennis, where a player has to defend their points from the previous season each week and where rankings change every single Monday, it can be hard to make the decision to step away from the tour and take a break, no matter how much you need it.

Jabeur admits it is something she hasn’t fully figured out yet and she finds herself playing at times when she really shouldn’t be.

“It's the pressure from myself. The fact that I always want to be on the court and I don’t want to miss any tournaments – I actually envy players when they take the decision not to play, I feel like, ‘Wow, these players are really so mature and they know what they’re doing’,” she said.

“I think maybe it’s a bit late but I wish I learned from this before because I see myself skipping so many tournaments just to put my health first. For the first time probably doing it right now, trying to find the right tournaments to play and not overplay and have a lot of heat on my knee especially right now.”

Jabeur is referring to the difficult decision she has taken to skip the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. With the Olympics staged on clay at Roland Garros, tennis players have the challenging task of adjusting to multiple surface changes within a short period of time. Going from hard courts to clay to grass to clay and then hard courts again is something Jabeur was advised by her doctors to avoid in order to preserve her knee.

Instead, she will be flying to the United States to kickstart her North American hard-court swing in Washington to prepare well for the US Open.

“I love my country so much but I don’t feel like I just represent it in the Olympics, I represent it every week. I wish all the best for all the Tunisians that will be participating there. It’s a very tough decision but unfortunately the tennis schedule is very, very tough,” she told reporters at Wimbledon on Saturday.

On the eve of her Wimbledon campaign, it's noticeable how often she refers to "working on herself" in her quest to win a first major. The 29-year-old spends hours with her mental coach, trying to unlock her full potential.

“I feel like I want to be a better person in general. I try to manage my thoughts, I try to manage my feelings. Right now, I came across a book about negative thoughts and how you manage that; sometimes if you ignore your thoughts, it’s not good enough, you have to really accept them,” she explained.

“I actually tried today when I was super angry on the court and I started to have negative thoughts, ‘You don’t know how to serve’, and this and that and return... I was like okay, ‘I’m not going to think about this, I’m just going to try to think positively’.

“I was repeating a lot of positive things in my head. I was working a lot on my body language because they say when you switch your body language, thoughts could also switch as well. That I’m learning a lot from.

“So many things, some feelings that I’m trying to heal, learning from the mistakes that I made before. I can talk about this for hours. For me, the most important thing is to know how to manage my feelings, especially when I really need them and sometimes I try to be less tough with myself, because that’s not great as well.”

Moving around the Wimbledon grounds with the words ‘Minister of Happiness’ emblazoned on the back of her shirt – custom-made by her Saudi sponsor Kayanee – and with millions rallying behind her, Jabeur has her smile back and is ready for another shot at greatness.