Ons’ Desert Dream

Tunisian fans of their countrywoman Ons Jabeur wait for her to appelé following her quarterfinal loss to Jelena Ostapenko at the 2025 Qatar TotalEnergies Open.

Most tennis fans know the moment our favorite players are about to implode during a match: that distant look in her eye, a football kick of a tennis ball, a bounced racquet and… the shoulder slump. It can come gradually over a long match or manifest acutely, likely caused by a clipped net ball or a one ace too many.

For devotees of Tunisian standout, Ons Jabeur, the moment of her decline is easy to spot and agonizing to watch. Lacking the poker face of most high-profile players, I have seen the slump set in: on Court 10 of the 2018 U.S. Open, when Jabeur faced Top 10 — and rising — Ashleigh Barty; during her first Arthur Ashe court appearance against an unrelenting Coco Vandeweighe, as Vandeweighe rallied the crowd in rounds of “USA, USA” after Jabeur lost the first set tiebreak; and on a big screen TV in Kings Cross, as Kazakh player Elena Rybakina wrested the second set, then the final set during the championship match. As the tears rolled down Jabeur’s face, it was all a longtime admirer could do to hold them in.

For near ten years now, I have watched and written about Ons Jabeur, catching her matches whenever I could: on television, from a far-away grand stand during the Bournemouth tournament’s Covid summer, on Wimbledon’s Centre Court. Small gains were often followed by a few backsteps, such as a hard-fought point kicking off an adrénaline surge that brought the set even. Or a swish of water and a Yalla from the audience helping her to rise and serve four bombshells in a row. I knew in my being that here was a different women’s player, one who had the slice, the drop shot back spin, the showmanship, the charm and the grit that even early admirers realized would separate her from the pack.

So after nearly six months without Jabeur on the tennis screen, I admit, I couldn’t wait to see her hoist that golden Falcon, as I landed in Doha. After all, it was Jabeur’s home region, she had the crowd behind her as the only Arab woman in the main draw and she had come from injury to the third round of the Australian Open in January.

Ons Jabeur on Wimbledon’s Centre Court following her 2022 quarter-final win.

Tunisian Ons Jabeur filled more seats of the Khalifa International Tennis + Squash Complex every time she played.

It wasn’t meant to be in the polished downtowns and the looming deserts of the Gulf countries. But first a rundown of all the action of Doha and Dubai, both men and women. On 9 February out of a draw of 64 players, with seven first-round byes for the top seeds and one Arab player ( Jabeur), a topsy-turvey Qatar Total Energies WTA 1000 Open began — mostly as predicted, with the Emma Raducanu first-round club notwithstanding. By the quarterfinals, only three out of the 16 seeds remained — and two Americans out of 10.

In one sorry day — the quarterfinals — Jessica Pegula (WTA No. 5) fell to unseeded Ekaterina Alexandrova (WTA No. 22); Iga Swiatek (WTA No. 2) ended the hopes of her vocal Polish fans by losing to Elena Rybakina (WTA No. 7); Marta Kostyuk (WTA No. 21) collapsed to Amanda Anisimova’s (WTA No. 41) power game; and Ons Jabeur (WTA No. 35) caved to Jelena Ostapenko (WTA No. 37).* On Saturday night in Doha, power groundstrokes dominated court proceedings with Anisimova kissing the base of the Falcon trophy after besting Ostapenko 6-4, 6-3.

Two days and a 45-minute flight later, the Gulf again proved the Bermuda Triangle of tennis. This past week, Raducanu (WTA No. 72) made use of her new coach to triumph over a stunned Maria Sakkari (WTA No. 48) in the first round (before going out in the second thanks to an alleged stalker), while the two championship-round players in Doha — Ostapenko and Anisimova — fell flat and exited early. Meanwhile, all the Americans besides Coco Gauff (WTA No. 3) inched into the fourth round, but the Stars + Stripes emerged with only Sofia Kenin (WTA No. 56, rising 17 spots in a week) moving to the quarterfinals. After going out to the media-and-love embattled Elena Rybakina (WTA No. 7), who ultimately lost to teenage tennis sensation Mira Andreeva (WTA No. 14), the final is set for Saturday with Andreeva playing the winner of the other head-scratching semi-final pitting Czech Karolina Muchova (WTA No. 17) against Swiss player Clara Tauson (WTA No. 38) match. Arab favorite Jabeur (WTA No 32) also exited in the first round.

At the Katara Beach just outside Doha, ATP players Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Grigor Dimitrov, and Stefanos Tsitsipas played a quick match on a quad of camels. Previous years’ photo dares have pitted Roger and Rafa against each other on a Dhow Boat and a magic carpet, among others.

In Doha, a Camel-back warm-up didn’t help anyone’s game. A 32-player draw (half the size of the women’s), saw the great Bulgarian hope, Grigor Dmitrov (ATP No. 15), lose in the first round to Czech player Jiri Lehecka (ATP No. 25), who has torn through the draw to reach the semifinals against the sole Brit, Jack Draper (ATP No. 16). The winner of that match faces either Andrey Rublev (ATP No. 10) or Felix Auger-Aliassime (ATP No. 23) — the first time these two have seen their names in a semi-final round in a while. Meanwhile, no Americans made the trip to Doha — likely choosing the South-American leg instead — while the remaining three camel-men, Novak Djokovic (ATP No. 7), Stefanos Tsitsipas (ATP No. 11), also lost in the first round and Carlos Alcaraz (ATP No. 3) went out in the quarterfinals.

The ExxonMobil Open did have one crucial element, lacking in the women’s draw: Middle Eastern Players. Tunisian Aziz Dougaz (ATP No. 216), who goes by La Doug, Lebanese player Hady Habib (ATP No. 166) and Jordanian Abdullah Shelbayh (ATP No. 267) all received wild-cards — all coming within just a few points of knocking off their first-round opponents. “That is what we are always looking for whenever we provide wildcards for the Qatar ExxonMobil Open — we want to use our position to help young players from across the region gain valuable experience, » said Qatar Open Director Saad Al-Mohannadi. But what about some of those lower-ranked Arab women?

The women’s Falcon trophy (left) and the men’s Falcon trophy, stamped with the face of the Father Emir Hamad Al-Thani, in pop-up exhibition on the grounds of the Qatar Open.

Ons Jabeur emerged strong in Doha, looking as if she had the hands to perch the Golden Falcon. She cruised through her first three rounds, even showing the steely Qinwen Zheng (WTA No. 8) a bit of a glower during the post-defeat handshake, and finishing off former Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin in two sets. But on Thursday, Jabeur walked on court looking a bit diminished, if not slightly deflated. Her fans were many, as the VIP stands started filled with various Sheikhs in their thobes and Ghutras, and the lower-riyal seats brought the crescent-and-star emblems of Jabeur’s native Tunisia. The crowd diminished this worried watcher’s concern for a few minutes. After the warm-up, the Tunisian took two games in her seventh meeting with Ostapenko — Jabeur leading the head-to-head 4 to 2 — before the Latvian’s racquet caught fire, landing winners in the far-flung corners of the court and proving too hot for Ons to effectively backspin.

Between Ostapenko’s serving yips and Ons’ flat slice into the net, the crowd tried to rally their champ. Jabeur’s physio husband, Karim Kamoun — almost always a stoic constant — and her coach, Issam Jellali, stood on their feet, yelling instructions. Ostapenko complained to the chair impure about the noise and the service heckling, and for the first time I’ve ever seen, Jabeur yelled at one particular troublemaker in Arabic, loosely translated into “would you please be quiet; we’re playing a match.” The Tunisian Minister of Happiness was irritated. She was struggling. Ostapenko was in her head; the misguided fan was in her head. The shoulders held a slump.

Ons Jabeur’s husband and trainer, Karim Kamoun, and her coach, Issam Jellali (above) showing some love for their player and (below) trying to will on Ons to a come-from-behind victory.

When I first met Ons Jabeur in 2017 while working on a story about Arab women playing tennis, she told me about listening to Eminem to heat her up or cool her down. She also told me about envisioning every night holding the Venus Rosewater dish at Wimbledon. I had just returned from a tour of marathons in the Middle East — Palestine, Iraq, Jordan and Beirut, with an attempt at entering Iran — and wondered why women were literally making strides on the streets, but not on the courts. I had read stories about Turkish players Cagla Buyukakcay (WTA No. 335) and Ipek Soylu (retired) and Omani Fatma al-Nabhani (retired). Meanwhile, Jabeur, who had the highest ranking of all, had quietly worked her way off the ITF Futures Circuit and into the WTA’s lower-ranking points tournaments. Back then, as now, MENA players were questioning why more women from the region weren’t in the draws and challenging tournament directors to start investing some of the purse money, which usually goes to foreign players for appearances, into their development. In the meantime, Jabeur inched into the Top-100.

Jabeur, the youngest of four children, grew up playing tennis with boys. When they hit kicking backhands, backspin, dropshots and tweeners, she followed. After training in Tunis, France and Belgium, Jabeur ultimately opted for her hometown of Sousse. By age 16, Jabeur became the first Arab girl to win a junior major singles title in history by taking the 2011 French Open and rose to No. 4 in the ITF Junior World Rankings. By 2019, Jabeur played all four Grand Slam main draws for the first time, and stayed in the top 100 the entire year, possibly helped by a $50,000 traveling and coaching grant from the ITF. In 2021, Jabeur teased loyal fans by reaching the final of her first WTA main event in Charleston, South Carolina, but lost to Australian Astra Sharma. A few months later, Jabeur reached her third final in her career and made history as the first Arab woman to win a WTA Tour title at the Birmingham Classic, defeating Daria Kasatkina, confident throughout. For this fan, it felt like Jabeur had arrived. That the early-round defeats and the confidence depletion was gone.

It took just another year for Jabeur to make history. During the grasscourt season, Jabeur defeated Tatiana Maria to reach her maiden Grand Slam final and become the first African woman, and the first Arab or North African player, in the Open Era to enter a Grand Slam singles final. Seemingly confident and assured, Jabuer took the first set against then-unknown Elena Rybakina, 6-3, and then the shift happened. I watched as Jabeur started thinking about the “what-ifs” of losing, instead of the “why-nots” of pushing her game to its limits. The “most painful loss” in her career came a year later, however, when she looked wobbly entering the final on Centre Court and lost in straight sets to Markéta Vondroušová, who had watched the final at home, injured, the previous year.

The Tunisian flags in full force at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha.

Thus far, Jabeur, now 30, has blazed a trail through the women’s tour on all continents and in most countries, alone, despite her appeal for more Middle-East and African players. She has talked about leaving the tour to have children and starting an academy in North Africa when she finishes her career — hopefully years away. “There are “so many Arab people watching me and supporting me.… I don’t want the journey to stop here,” Jabeur told me in 2021. During her four-month break, however, Jabeur stayed busy: appearing as ambassador for the World Food Programme in appeals for Gaza; posing for various Arab editions of women’s magazines; playing exhibitions for tennis diplomacy in Saudi Arabia; and repping her Saudi clothing designer, Kayanee everywhere she goes.

Other Arab players haven’t had their moxie quite as rewarded. Eight byes dotted the Qatar first-round draw, which host countries usually fill with Wildcards. Jabeur has spoken many times about having fellow Arab women on the tour with her, and is known for inviting Algerian fixture Ines Ibbou, as well as Egyptian Mayar Sherif (WTA No. 68), to Tunisia to train “Hopefully, whoever is watching—and I hope so many of the young generation is watching—they will be inspired and I can be playing with a lot of (other African and Arab) players next to me,” Jabeur has said. The UAE and Qatar tournament directors had a few up-and-comers to choose from, including Sherif, Turkish standouts Zeynep Sonmez (WTA No. 90), Berfu Cengiz (WTA No. 201) and Ipek Oz (WTA No. 236 ) as well as Egyptian Sandra Samir (WTA No. 437). Several Nigerians and Kenyans have joined college teams in the States, while the world’s sole sub-Saharan African, Sada Nahimana (WTA No. 330), keeps fighting forward. “Sometimes you need someone to show you the path,” Jabeur said. “When I was young … I struggled and I didn’t believe in myself, because I didn’t see many Tunisians before me. I had to say to myself, O.K., it’s a small country. It’s Africa, but we are human beings, we are capable.

“I hope we can change this overall mentality one day.”

Jabeur’s first step, however, is to step out during the big matches and act as if she owns the court, especially now, in a tour and world that has traditionally been stacked against Arabs.

Rally: All Things Racquet (Demo Above)

Rally, conceived of and designed by two long-time players is both a booking interface on Kickstarter and an AI-powered concierge that:

1. Allows players to find, book and pay for both public and private pickle, Padel and tennis courts around the world with the tap of a phone
2. Gives users choice among surfaces, dates, locations and times to play their favorite racquet sports
3. Permits private clubs to sell their unused court time on the main app and gives them a bespoke white-label booking app for their members
4. Matches players with coaches to help them increase their business at public/private courts, and
5. Provides easy access to peer-to-peer hitting, as well as sessions with professional “sparring partners,” stringing, equipment purchasing and all things tennis, padel and pickleball.

For now, players can check out plans for the app on the Rally website — with free access to some of the best tips and tricks for your game.