Ons Jabeur is a tennis player from Tunisia. Jabeur, the No. 1 ranked Tunisian tennis player at the present, holds the record for highest-ranked African and Arab tennis player in ATP and WTA rankings history.
Coach Nabil Mlika trained Jabeur from the age of four to thirteen. She first collaborated with him in a tennis promotion centre at her school. When she was ten, her club didn’t have any tennis courts, so she had to practice on those at the hotels around. When she was twelve years old, Jabeur moved to the capital of Tunis to train at the Lycée Sportif El Menzah, a national sports high school for the country’s aspiring athletes.
She stayed there for several years. At the age of 16, she began her training in France and Belgium. Jabeur commends her parents for their efforts when she was a little girl, noting, “My parents gave up a lot of things to raise me. My mum supported my desire to attend a special school and used to transport me to competitions all around Tunisia.
To see her little daughter pursue a passion that, in all honesty, wasn’t clear, was a major sacrifice for her. Because she was confident in my abilities, she encouraged me to show up.” In 2008, Jabeur, just 14 years old, began competing on the ITF Women’s Circuit. She finished second at a $10K competition in Monastir in October 2009.
She became the first African and Arab player to win a title at this level at the 2022 Madrid Open, a WTA 1000 competition, which was her biggest victory.
Who is Ons Jabeur’s Coach Issam Jellali?
Issam Jellali is a former ATP and Davis Cup competitor. He is currently Ons Jabeur’s coach in Tunisia.
