Google News
World No. 10 Ons Jabeur called Rafael Nadal "a great inspiration" as she is hoping to make a deep run in Madrid and potentially lift her first title at the tournament. Nadal, the greatest clay courter in tennis history, has won five Madrid titles throughout his career.
Jabeur debuted in Madrid last year, when she reached the round-of-16. "It is a great inspiration, to see how many times he has won here, hopefully I can win at least one. He is an amazing guy both on and off the court and I look forward to seeing him play for several more years," Jabeur told the Madrid tournament website, per Sportskeeda.
Jabeur on the Wimbledon decision
In an interview with Arab News, Jabeur was asked to give her thoughts on Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players from competing. “It’s a very tough decision, I understand what the Ukrainian people are going through and I am totally against war," Jabeur told Arab News.
“But what I’ve always been told for so many years is to never mix sports and politics”. Wimbledon revealed they contemplated allowing Russian players to play but only after they sign some kind of anti-Vladimir Putin forms.
Wimbledon thought that could potentially put Russian players in danger so they decided against going that route. “For me, I don’t think we should mix politics and sports. It’s very sad what’s happening in the world and one thing I hate in this world is politics.
It’s very dirty and we can never get the full picture of everything. So I hope this situation will be resolved very soon, I don’t know what’s going to happen," Jabeur added. “But I know that also Russians and Belarusians have their families back home, so I’m not sure how much they can talk about it.
“So it’s a very difficult situation for both, especially for Ukrainians. And honestly, I hope this war will be over soon so there will be no problems”.
