By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday, September 8, 2022

Flushing Meadows, NY—Ons Jabeur is back in a Grand Slam semifinal for the second time for two months. In July she made history for Tunisia and the Arab world, becoming the first Grand Slam finalist from her country.

But she squandered a set lead in the final and fell to Elena Rybakina.

Fast forward two months and Jabeur is confidence that she can take the lesson from a difficult loss.

“I'm definitely going to learn from all the finals that I played, and especially the last one at Wimbledon,” she said. “I'm going to give it all. Definitely going for the title here.”

Shout it out Loud

Jabeur said that her success is due, at least in part, to visualizing her goals and speaking openly about them. She has never been shy about telling reporters that she feels she belongs in the Top 5, and that dream has come to fruition in 2022.

She believes there is a connection between saying and doing.

“Definitely saying out loud what I want to do is part of me achieving things,” she said. “I remember saying that I want to be top five, I wanted to win a Grand Slam, and I wanted to qualify for the Masters. You know, two, check, check, there is one more is going to check hopefully soon,” she said.

As her second Grand Slam final approaches, Jabeur says she’s a little more grounded.

“At Wimbledon I was kind of just living the dream, and I couldn't believe it,” she said. “Even just after the match, I was just going to do my things and not realizing it was an amazing achievement already.

“Now I just hope I'm getting used to it, just happy with the fact that I backed up the results at Wimbledon and people are not really surprised I'm in the finals, but just going and going and just doing my thing. Now maybe I know what to do in the finals. I know it's going to be very difficult, but I'm going to have to do my best now.”