Maria Sharapova was 27 when she won her fifth and final grand slam title. At the same age, Ons Jabeur is just getting started. Every week seems to bring a fresh landmark for the Tunisian, yet her talent is such that no achievement seems definitive. Rather, each milestone has the feel of a fresh beginning, a stepping stone to yet bigger and better things.
Jabeur’s latest success, a 7-5, 6-3 quarter-final victory over Anett Kontaveit in Indian Wells, means she will enter the world’s top 10 for the first time on Monday, the first Arab in history to do so. It is the culmination of a childhood ambition, but there is surely more to come. Like any aspiring youngster, Jabeur also dreamed of being world No 1; Ashleigh Barty, the current holder of that position, is arguably the only higher-ranked player who even comes close to matching her guile and variety.
Could she go on to become a multiple grand slam champion like Sharapova? Ability and ambition are certainly on her side, although for now her focus is firmly on her first WTA 1000 semi-final, where she will play Spain’s Paula Badosa, and on cementing her claim to place at the season-ending WTA Finals in Guadalajara.
“I was looking more at the race at the beginning of the tournament,” said Jabeur, the 12th seed, following her tour-leading 48th win of the season. “This is a dream coming true. This is something that I’ve been wanting.
“I always wanted to get there, to be No 1 in the world. Top 10, I know, is the beginning. I know I deserve this place from a long time, since I was playing well. But I want to prove that I deserve to be here, I deserve to be one of the top 10 players. There are a lot of things that I need to improve.
“I’m very happy, a lot of emotions right now, but I’m still in competition so I’m trying to calm down and not overthink about top 10. Probably I will celebrate after the tournament. I just believed in myself, I worked hard, and this is just the beginning of great things.”
The greatest obstacle to further progress may be Jabeur herself. The prodigiously gifted Tunisian has worked hard to bring greater discipline to her decision-making, and improved shot selection has been key to her continued rise in a year that brought her first WTA singles title in Birmingham this summer. An abundance of options can nonetheless be a double-edged sword, and such was the case for Jabeur as she served for the opening set against Kontaveit at 5-4, an ill-advised drop shot finding the net on break point. “Sometimes I cannot control my hands,” smiled Jabeur, who had initially stormed to a 4-1 lead in just 20 minutes.
Kontaveit was unable to build on the breakthrough, dropping serve for the third time as Jabeur fired winners off both wings, and this time Jabeur played a solid service game to consolidate the break and claim the set. If she was feeling tension as she closed in on her latest piece of history, Jabeur wasn’t showing it. Lunging for a forehand in the next game, she performed the splits and then, having failed to make the shot, transitioned seamlessly into a press-up position, knocking off a couple of reps before strolling off to her chair with a grin. She had good cause to be relaxed. Her repertoire of chipped passes, deft drop shots and audacious angles was more than Kontaveit could cope with, for all that the Estonian came into the contest having won 16 of her last 17 matches following title wins in Cleveland and Ostrava.
With her dream of a top-10 ranking achieved, Jabeur thrust her arms skyward in triumph. “I really didn’t look much at the ranking, but I knew I was kind of not far. I was talking to my mental coach and I told her, ‘This is too much [stress].’ But I told her, ‘I need to do this, I need to go through this to be able to win a grand slam one day.’
“To go and win a grand slam, you need to take this step. I am trying. I’m trying so hard to calm myself down and handle all this stress, because I want to be a grand slam champion. If I want to do that, then I need to go through this.”
The next step will involve a meeting with Badosa, the 21st seed, who Jabeur counts as a close friend. The Spaniard, a quarter-finalist at this year’s French Open, defeated former world No 1 Angelique Kerber, a finalist at Indian Wells in 2019, 6-4, 6-3. Jabeur had jokingly hoped that the pair would play a five-hour marathon.
“I hope tonight Ons eats a lot of burgers and she cannot play,” Badosa teased in response. “We were talking just now. It’s really fun to play against her. We’re really good friends. It’s going to be a tough one. She’s playing amazing.”