By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Friday, May 26, 2023
Ons Jabeur , after enduring injury issues for most of the clay season, says she is fit and ready ahead of this year’s Roland Garros.
The No. 7 seeded Tunisian, still in search of her first major singles title, is looking forward to the Parisian clay after dealing with a calf injury in many of the lead-up events to the second Grand Slam of the year.
“Well, injury-wise I'm feeling much better, and I had a very nice week of training here at the French Open. I'm going to do my best and hopefully do better than last year,” Jabeur said in a pre-event press conference.
When asked if she was 100%, she replied “Yeah, definitely 100%. I was training with a lot of players, moving normally.”
Jabeur, started off the clay season strong winning her first title of the year in Charleston. But in Stuttgart, the 28-year-old star, picked up a calf injury in Stuttgart. That same injury forced her to withdraw from Madrid the following week. She then suffered an early round straight sets loss to Paula Badosa in Rome.
Despite the setbacks, the usually optimistic Jabeur is looking forward to her first-round meeting with Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti who just reached the Rabat finals. Jabeur is also happy that her opening match is not on Sunday, the opening day of the event.
“Well, I'm not playing on Sunday. It's a good start. I will play one match at a time, step by step, as we say," Jabeur said. "The first match will be hard, because she's actually on the rise right now. There is no easy first round. I will do my best.
"The most important thing for me is to be in good health, because it was hard lately with all these injuries that I had sustained. I will try to play with the same mindset as for Charleston, because I think it was the best tournament that I played this season. I will try to keep up and enjoy playing on court.”
Jabeur is also hoping for a much better start in Paris this year than in 2022 when, despite being a pre-tournament favorite, she crashed out of the opening round in three sets to Magda Linette.
With Roland Garros still the only major that she has yet to reach the quarterfinals at, Jabeur is looking forward to the challenge. Especially as she has so much fan support in the City of Lights.
“I love Paris. I love being here. I keep wonderful memories, especially after having won the junior Roland Garros," Jabeur said. "And Tunisia is very close to Paris, so there is a lot of Tunisians that live in Paris or come over here to support me.
"2022 has been a game changer for me. I feel like I'm under -- I have more fans cheering for me. I have more support from Tunisia. People love more tennis than before. Maybe they started watching more tennis than football, which is great for me.”