Google News
World No. 14 Ons Jabeur admitted she arrived to the Indian Wells Masters stressed out became a lot was at stake for her. Jabeur, 27, made the Indian Wells semifinal -- which guarantees that she will become the first Arab player ever inside the top-10 and she also improved her chances of making the WTA Finals.
Jabeur wanted to find a way to handle the stress and pressure because she believes that could help her in her bid to one day win a Grand Slam. "I came here stressed a lot with the Race. I really didn't look much at the ranking, but I knew I was kind of not far," Jabeur said, per the WTA website.
"I was talking to my mental coach and I told her, This is too much. 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 to take these steps. 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. Hopefully I'll go through this without having a heart attack," she said, laughing."
Jabeur didn't have an easy path
"It is much different to come from my country than being American or French or Australian.
They have not just the example of seeing players playing in front of you, more tennis clubs, even more tournaments, let's say," Jabeur explained. "I've been rejected by sponsors because of where I come from, which is so not fair.
I didn't understand why before. I accepted it. I dealt with it. I am really proud of the person I became today, just not relying on others. "Everybody had probably a difficult career. I'm not saying I have the most difficult one. I just wanted to really do this.
It's my dream. I didn't want to depend on a sponsor or someone who doesn't even care about tennis or doesn't even care about sport in general. It gave me the courage to continue and achieve my goals, and I'm in Top 10 today."