Dubai tennis: Arab icon Jabeur eager to return refreshed at Miami Open

Dubai - Jabeur, the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal, now wants to take a mini-vacation

Life in a bubble can be tough and Arab tennis icon Ons Jabeur is eager to take a mini-break and come back refreshed ahead of the Miami Open later this month.

It has been a hectic past couple of months for the Tunisian on Tour and the world No.31 will be skipping the WTA 250 event in Monterrey, Mexico and the WTA 500 St.Petersburg Ladies Trophy in Russia, and be ready for Miami.

“No, I don’t think so. It will be too much for me,” replied Jabeur, when asked whether she will be competing in Monterrey and St.Petersburg.

The 26-year-old, who became the first Arab woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam when she made it to the last eight of the Australian Open last year, said that she wanted to take a mini-vacation and have time for herself.

“I really need to take some time outside the court. It has been really tough, these couple of months and I think I need to get out of the bubble a little bit. I need to have a normal life. It is not a normal life right now but I want to at least have some time for myself. I think I need that,” she said.

“Probably, I will go to Miami. I don’t have the time to go back home right now, so I think the best is to go to Miami,” added Jabeur.

Jabeur, the highest-ranked Arab player in WTA history, revealed that she hasn’t been feeling great, of late, following her third round loss to southpaw Jil Teichmann of Switzerland, in the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and wanted to “disconnect” a little bit.

“Obviously, it wasn’t my day and like I said, I wasn’t feeling great, lately, on the court, so, I wasn’t expecting much from this tournament. And I was taking it day by day. It was kind of tough for me. Now, all I can say is I want to be ready for Miami, I want to disconnect a little bit. I don’t have much time so I’m just going to try to do the best out of it and take the positives from this tournament. Tennis is tough, especially in those kind of moments, but what can I do? I’m human after all,” she elaborated.

Jabeur’s record against left-handers reads three victories and seven defeats over the last 10 matches but she was unsure if there was a weakness against southpaws.

“Jil is a great player. She’s not a typical leftie, I mean she doesn’t really go angles but she played good. It wasn’t my best game, a lot of unforced errors, I assume, from what I did on the court. Maybe I’m not sure if this says I don’t like to play lefties, I guess I don’t,” felt Jabeur.

Talking about the season, she said: “I was expecting to play better in the beginning of the year but as you can see, the only draw was possible for me to go further was this one. It was a tough couple of months for me. It wasn’t easy and we had to adapt in many ways, but I tried to stay positive. Maybe it was not meant to be, to start good this season, but maybe improve in the middle and finish it good. So, let’s see. The season is long and I need to be smart about a lot of things. I will keep working and try to find a good rhythm for myself.”

james@khaleejtimes.com