As she hits new heights, Jabeur reflects on 'great' GSDF programme
She’s earned congratulations from Roger Federer, praise from Venus Williams and admiration from all corners of the sport for her trailblazing, inspirational tennis.
Ons Jabeur, who majestically overcame Iga Swiatek 5-7 6-1 6-1 on manic Monday, may be the first Arab player to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon since 1974 but the Tunisian world No. 24 is hardly crashing the party.
In fact, at the All England Club this week, she could easily be the last one to leave.
“This time is different,” admitted the now two-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist, having matched her career-best performance at the 2020 Australian Open. “I’ve been going to the second week almost every Grand Slam right now. Being more consistent. I think everybody was kind of expecting me to be in the second week.
“My goal is to break this quarter-final and be able to go to a semi, and why not final?”
Why not, indeed. It is a mark of Jabeur’s incredible progress that she is talking in these terms, and comes just two weeks after she became the first Arab woman to win a WTA title in Birmingham in June.
Jabeur has hardly benefitted from the kind of big-bang breakthrough enjoyed by 18-year-old Emma Raducanu this week. In a sport that places equal demands on a player’s technical, physical and mental abilities every time they take to court, few do.
Now 26, and hailing from a small town in Tunisia - a nation hardly known for laying a smooth path toward international tennis success, Jabeur’s tennis growth has long been a slow burn, breaking down barriers and ticking-off new milestones along the way. Now, with a second major quarter-final and two further appearance in the second week at Roland Garros over the last two years under her belt, it has ignited into a raging bonfire.
Back in 2017, with her ranking outside the Top 100, Jabeur was selected, along with 11 others, to receive a $50,000 Grand Slam Grant Player Grant financed by the Grand Slam Development Fund.
Her talent and application was clear as day, and it was hoped that the financial boost would allow her to truly make her mark in the professional game. Up to that point four years ago, she had contested just two Grand Slam events - resulting in first round defeats at the 2014 US Open and 2015 Australian Open.
Buoyed by the cash injection, which freed her of the worries of the cost of travelling, coaching and financing her tennis development, Jabeur promptly enjoyed a career-best run to the third round at 2017 Roland Garros. Her upward trajectory has continued ever since.
Though she has regularly spoken about the support she received in 2017 (“It’s one of the reasons I’m here today, why I’m winning matches”), Jabeur again reflected on the importance of the Grand Slam Development Fund on Monday after the latest milestone in her career.
“I think it's a great programme,” she said. “I was lucky enough to be chosen by the ITF. They helped me, I think it was back in 2017. That was the time when I broke through to the top hundred.
“It was very helpful because tennis is a very difficult sport financially. If you find that kind of support, if you find that, you probably have a certain amount will help you and then you can focus more on playing tennis.
“That's what I did. I had a coach. I had a team behind me. I think that's what I needed to [help me] focus more on tennis than the money outside.”
As well as the $50,000 Player Grant to help take her tennis to the next level, Jabeur also received support from the Grand Slam Development Fund on a number of occasions earlier in her tennis career.
She was a part of the ITF/GSDF African 14 and Under Team to Europe in 2008, and received four grants to play junior events through 2009-2011, and another to play women's circuit events in 2013.
Jabeur’s story underlines the worth of a programme that has contributed over $55million to tennis development since its inception in 1986. The twenty-nine players from 22 countries who are part of the latest crop of Grand Slam Player Grant Recipients would do well to follow her lead.
A self-described dreamer Jabeur might be, but with 'only' three wins standing in the way of the mother of all achievements, perhaps it’s not time to wake up just yet.