115 Facts About Ons Jabeur

Ons Jabeur was born on 28 August 1994 and is a Tunisian professional tennis player.

Ons Jabeur has a career-high singles ranking by the WTA of No 2, achieved on 27 June 2022, making her the highest-ranked African and Arab tennis player in WTA and ATP rankings history.

Ons Jabeur is the first African and Arab woman to contest a major singles final.

Ons Jabeur was first exposed to tennis by her mother at three years old.

Ons Jabeur became pro in her teen years when she reached two junior major girls' singles finals at the French Open in 2010 and 2011, winning the latter and becoming the first African or Arab to win a junior major since 1964.

At the 2020 Australian Open, Jabeur became the first Arab woman to reach a major quarterfinal, a feat she repeated at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.

Ons Jabeur became the first Arab woman to win a WTA Tour title at the 2021 Birmingham Classic.

Ons Jabeur then elevated her level in the summer of 2022, winning the 2022 Madrid Open for her biggest title, followed by two successive major finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Ons Jabeur's achievements are credited with raising the profile of tennis across the African continent.

Ons Jabeur won the Arab Woman of the Year award in 2019.

Ons Jabeur was born to Samira and Ridha Jabeur in Ksar Hellal, a small town in Tunisia.

Ons Jabeur grew up in the larger nearby coastal city of Sousse.

Ons Jabeur has two older brothers, Hatem and Marwen, and an older sister, Yasmine.

Ons Jabeur's mother played tennis recreationally and introduced her to the sport at the age of three.

Ons Jabeur trained under coach Nabil Mlika for ten years from ages four to thirteen, originally starting to work with him at a tennis promotion centre at her school.

At twelve years old, Ons Jabeur moved to the capital city of Tunis to train at the Lycee Sportif El Menzah, a national sport high school for the country's up-and-coming athletes, where she stayed for several years.

Ons Jabeur later trained in Belgium and France starting at the age of 16.

Ons Jabeur believed in me and gave me the confidence to be there.

Ons Jabeur began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit in August 2007 on the week of her 13th birthday.

Ons Jabeur defeated Abbes to win her first Grade 5 singles event at the 2009 Fujairah ITF Junior Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates, where she won the doubles event with Abbes.

Ons Jabeur made her junior major debut at the 2009 US Open, losing her opening match to Laura Robson.

Ons Jabeur started to produce strong results at the junior majors and other Grade A events in May 2010.

Ons Jabeur performed well at Wimbledon, reaching the quarterfinals in singles and the semifinal in doubles.

Ons Jabeur lost to Yulia Putintseva in singles, and Khromacheva and Svitolina in doubles alongside Monica Puig.

Ons Jabeur entered the doubles event with Putintseva and lost in the quarterfinals to Khromacheva again, who had partnered with Daria Gavrilova.

Ons Jabeur became the first Arab girl to win a junior major singles title in history, and the first junior in general since Ismail El Shafei won the Wimbledon boys' title in 1964.

Ons Jabeur entered the doubles event at the Grade 1 Junior International Roehampton, which she won while partnering with Ashleigh Barty.

Ons Jabeur began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2008 at the age of 14.

Ons Jabeur won her first title at the $10k level in singles in May 2010 in Antalya, Turkey.

Ons Jabeur then won the singles and doubles events at another $10k tournament in Casablanca, Morocco two months later.

Ons Jabeur made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the age of 17 as a wildcard at the Premier 5 Qatar Ladies Open in February 2012, where she lost her first career match to No 103 Virginie Razzano, in three sets.

Ons Jabeur was given a wildcard into the qualifying competition at the Dubai Tennis Championships the following week.

Ons Jabeur did not have much success at the ITF Circuit in 2012, only reaching one final, which came in singles and was her first at the $25k level.

Ons Jabeur entered qualifying at the French Open, but only won one match.

Ons Jabeur finished the year ranked No 260 in the world.

Ons Jabeur entered the qualifying competitions at Wimbledon and the US Open, losing her opening match in both events.

Ons Jabeur stayed inside the top 200 for most of the next three years, but could not enter the top 100, reaching a career-best ranking of 118 in 2015.

Ons Jabeur continued to play a mix of ITF and WTA events but played primarily at the ITF level.

Ons Jabeur finished runner-up twice in 2014, with the higher-level result coming at the $50k Open Nantes Atlantique, losing to Katerina Siniakova.

Ons Jabeur lost her opening matches at both tournaments to No 19 Andrea Petkovic and Vera Zvonareva, respectively.

Ons Jabeur participated in all four Grand Slam singles events in 2017 for the first time.

Ons Jabeur began to rise back up the rankings at the Premier-level Dubai Tennis Championships, where she qualified for the main draw and upset world No 22, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, in the first round.

Ons Jabeur lost in the third round to Timea Bacsinszky.

Ons Jabeur's only other Grand Slam main-draw match-win of the year was a first-round win over American wildcard Brienne Minor at the US Open, which cemented her place in the top 100 for the rest of the year.

Ons Jabeur regained some of her ranking points when she won her first $100k title at the Manchester Trophy, bringing her back to No 133.

Ons Jabeur won her only Grand Slam main-draw match of the year at Wimbledon over Viktorija Golubic, who she defeated for the third time in the span of a month.

Ons Jabeur ended her season with the best result of her career to date.

Ons Jabeur defeated three top-25 players in the tournament, including No 8 Sloane Stephens and No 11 Anastasija Sevastova.

Ons Jabeur played all four Grand Slam main draws for the first time in 2019, and stayed in the top 100 the entire year.

Ons Jabeur reached the semifinals at the Premier-level Eastbourne International, where she upset home favourite and world No 19, Johanna Konta.

Ons Jabeur withdrew before the semifinal due to a right ankle injury.

Ons Jabeur defeated No 27 Caroline Garcia and then Aliaksandra Sasnovich to reach the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the second time in her career.

Ons Jabeur lost a tight three-set match to world No 3, Karolina Pliskova, in the third round.

Ons Jabeur defeated three players including No 36 Yulia Putintseva, before losing to Rebecca Peterson in her second semifinal of the year.

Ons Jabeur defeated a fourth top 50 player in succession in Wang Qiang before losing to eventual champion Sofia Kenin in the quarterfinals.

Ons Jabeur held a match point against No 2, Simona Halep, in a second-round loss at Dubai.

Ons Jabeur then reached the quarterfinals at the Qatar Ladies Open, where she upset world No 3, Karolina Pliskova, in the third round.

Ons Jabeur finished the year as world No 31, her highest year-end ranking thus far.

Ons Jabeur participated in both tournaments of the Charleston Open, reaching the semifinal at the Volvo Car Open, and the final of the second, the MUSC Health Women's Open, which she lost to Australian Astra Sharma.

Ons Jabeur reached a career-high ranking of world No 24 on 10 May 2021.

Ons Jabeur defeated Magda Linette to reach the fourth round for a second time in this major where she lost to 24th seed Coco Gauff.

At Wimbledon, Ons Jabeur, seeded 21st, defeated five-time champion Venus Williams to become the first Tunisian tennis player, first Arab woman, and the first woman representing an African country since Cara Black from Zimbabwe in 2005, to reach the third round at Wimbledon.

Ons Jabeur continued her run when, despite vomiting at the side of the court when at match point, she defeated former Wimbledon champion and 11th seed, Garbine Muguruza, to reach the fourth round, coming back from a set down to reach the second week and round of 16 for the first time.

Ons Jabeur defeated seventh seed Iga Swiatek to reach the quarterfinals, where she lost to second seed and first-time quarterfinalist Aryna Sabalenka.

At Indian Wells, Ons Jabeur reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal by defeating Anett Kontaveit in the quarterfinals.

Ons Jabeur won the tournament, defeating Belinda Bencic in the final.

Ons Jabeur defeated Astra Sharma in the first round and Petra Kvitova in the second round before losing to Anett Kontaveit in the quarterfinals.

Ons Jabeur subsequently withdrew from the Australian Open due to a back injury sustained in the Sydney tournament.

At the Indian Wells Open, Ons Jabeur received a bye into the second round where she was upset by Daria Saville in three sets.

Ons Jabeur reached the fourth round at the Miami Open, falling to 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins in straight sets.

Ons Jabeur reached her first final of the year at the Charleston Open, where she fell to Belinda Bencic in three sets.

Ons Jabeur defeated Jessica Pegula in the final to become the first African player to win a WTA 1000 title, the ninth different winner at the Madrid Open and the 38th different winner in a WTA 1000 tournament.

Ons Jabeur was shockingly defeated by Linette, after having a set and a break lead in the second set.

Ons Jabeur initially entered the Eastbourne International singles draw seeded second, but withdrew before the tournament.

Ons Jabeur remained in the doubles draw as a wildcard, in which she partnered with Serena Williams, who was playing her first tournament since 2021 Wimbledon.

Ons Jabeur achieved a new career-high in the singles rankings of world No 2, on 27 June 2022, which was the highest-ranking for any African and Arab tennis player in WTA and ATP rankings history.

At the Cincinnati Open, Ons Jabeur lost in the second round to Petra Kvitova, in three sets.

Ons Jabeur recorded her first win at a WTA Tour event in Africa against Ann Li at the inaugural edition of the WTA 250 tennis tournament in Monastir, which she helped start in her home country.

Ons Jabeur was eventually defeated by Claire Liu in the quarterfinals.

Ons Jabeur made her debut at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth.

Ons Jabeur defeated Jessica Pegula in her second match of the group stage in three sets.

Ons Jabeur ended the best season of her career ranked No 2 in the WTA rankings.

Ons Jabeur started the year with two victories against Sorana Cirstea and Ukrainian qualifier Marta Kostyuk in Adelaide International 1.

Ons Jabeur was defeated in the semifinals by 18-year old qualifier Linda Noskova, 102nd in the world, in three sets.

Ons Jabeur fell in the first round of Miami the following week, beaten by Russian qualifier Varvara Gracheva.

Ons Jabeur reached the final without losing a set, with wins over Lesia Tsurenko, Caroline Dolehide, Anna Kalinskaya and Daria Kasatkina.

Ons Jabeur took part in the Stuttgart Grand Prix two weeks later and took out former Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko and Beatriz Haddad Maia but had to retire in the semifinal against top seed Iga Swiatek, after three games due to a left calf injury.

Ons Jabeur returned to the Italian Open but lost in the first match against former world No 2, Paula Badosa.

Ons Jabeur finds the American Bernarda Pera, a novice at this stage.

Ons Jabeur dismisses her and goes to the quarterfinals for the first time in her career in the tournament.

At Wimbledon, Jabeur managed to eliminate four Grand Slam champions on her way to the final including Bianca Andreescu in the third round, Petra Kvitova in the fourth, defending champion Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, and world No 2, Aryna Sabalenka, in the semifinals.

Ons Jabeur won her fifth title defeating Diana Shnaider in the final of the 2023 Ningbo Open.

At the Australian Open, Jabeur lost in the second round for a second consecutive year, this time to the 16-year old Mirra Andreeva who was making her tournament debut and ranked No 47 at the time.

Ons Jabeur went out in the third round of Wimbledon, losing to Elina Svitolina.

Ons Jabeur withdrew from the US Open due to a shoulder injury.

Ons Jabeur made her comeback at the Australian Open, securing wins over Anhelina Kalinina and Camila Osorio, before losing to eighth seed Emma Navarro in the third round.

Ons Jabeur represented Tunisia at the Junior Fed Cup in 2009 alongside Nour Abbes and Sonia Daggou.

Ons Jabeur made her senior Fed Cup debut for Tunisia in 2011, representing the team from 2011 to 2013, and again from 2016 through 2019.

Ons Jabeur won all of her singles rubbers when the team was promoted in 2012,2013, and 2018.

Ons Jabeur was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Chinese player Zheng Saisai in both competitions.

Ons Jabeur represented Tunisia in singles at the London Olympics in 2012, the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016, and the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.

Ons Jabeur lost her 2012 opening round match to Sabine Lisicki in three sets.

Ons Jabeur lost her 2016 opening round match in three sets, this time to Daria Kasatkina.

Ons Jabeur had a chance to serve for the match in the second set against Kasatkina, but was broken.

Ons Jabeur tries to employ difficult shots because that is how she enjoys playing tennis.

Ons Jabeur can hit winners in a variety of ways, including backhand drop shots from the baseline or forehands up the line.

Ons Jabeur tries to improve my good shots, not change what I do.

Ons Jabeur occasionally has to postpone certain practices due to Ramadan during tournaments.

Ons Jabeur is married to Karim Kamoun, a Russian-Tunisian former fencer who has been her fitness coach since mid-2017.

Ons Jabeur was one of 12 players who received an International Player Grand Slam Grant from the Grand Slam Development Fund in 2017 immediately before the French Open, where she won her first two career Grand Slam main-draw matches.

Ons Jabeur won the 2019 Arab Woman of the Year Award in the sport category, having reached the third round of the US Open and established herself as a permanent fixture in the top 100 that year.

Ons Jabeur appears in the tennis docuseries Break Point, which premiered on Netflix on January 13,2023.

In June 2015, Ons Jabeur signed a partnership contract with Qatar National Bank Tunisia.

Ons Jabeur has signed with Evolve, a sports management agency founded by four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.

On 25 August 2023, Ons Jabeur purchased a minority stake in National Women's Soccer League club North Carolina Courage, becoming the second professional tennis player to do so after Naomi Osaka.