Ons Jabeur on Wimbledon, inequality in tennis and Gaza: 'People are forgetting about them'

At this point in her career, Ons Jabeur is done staying silent.

Whether it’s the atrocities that continue to take place in Gaza, or sexist attitudes towards women’s sport, the 30-year-old Tunisian wants to use her voice and platform to speak out against injustice.

“My heart always goes out to Gaza because their situation is getting worse and worse and I feel like people are forgetting about them,” Jabeur told The National at the All England Club, ahead of the start of her Wimbledon campaign.

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“I hope that changes and I hope really the world would wake up and just try to open the borders, get them food. Just do something. I feel like nobody's doing anything.

“I feel like the civilians are always paying the price for the crazy choices that politicians are making. And I wish peace everywhere.”

During her pre-event press conference, Jabeur was asked about a planned protest – by Campaign Against Arms Trade, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and War on Want – against Wimbledon’s tournament sponsor Barclays.

Barclays has faced criticism for its alleged relationships with defence firms that produce equipment used by the Israeli Defence Force. The bank has said it does not invest its own money in companies that supply weapons used by Israel in Gaza, and it only trades shares in such companies on behalf of its clients.

The protest is scheduled to take place just outside the All England Club on Monday, the first day of the Championships. Jabeur was unaware of the protest, but said: “I hope it will be a peaceful one.

“My heart goes out to the children and women and men that are dying every day there. They're not only being killed, but also being starved, which is very inhuman,” she added.

“We are in 2025 and the world is not changing. I feel like they're not doing anything about it. It is very sad. I hope everything stops and every war … It's a pretty scary world right now. I'm really scared all the time. I'm just watching the media and I feel like it's getting heated from everywhere.”

As one of just two Arabs in the Wimbledon singles main draw – alongside Egypt’s Mayar Sherif – Jabeur has become a de facto spokesperson on the war in Gaza, frequently fielding questions from the media.

In a climate where any support for Palestine can be erroneously equated to anti-Semitism, speaking her mind and sharing her views can be difficult. But she believes bottling it all up inside is no easier.

“It's true, it's a burden, but it would be 10 times worse if I keep it inside,” said Jabeur, who is a goodwill ambassador for the World Food Programme.

“At a certain time, when things got worse in Gaza, I couldn't speak; some people advised me not to speak and I couldn't even do that.

“That's how the whole interview in Cancun happened because I was holding it inside for a long time,” she explained, referring to her tearful plea for peace during an on-court interview at the WTA Finals in Cancun in November 2023.

“It was making me very, very sad and it drains your energy, it's like you open up [your phone] and then you just see dead children all over and that's really sad.

“And the worst part is that you feel helpless, you feel like you're not doing enough and you need to help more.”

In an attempt to do more for women’s tennis, Jabeur recently called out French Open organisers for not scheduling any women’s matches in the prime time night session slot at the tournament for the past two years.

After sharing her views during her press conference in Paris and demanding “better scheduling” decisions from Roland Garros, Jabeur received many messages on social media of people disagreeing with her and showing her photos of empty stadiums from women’s matches.

That prompted the Tunisian to pen a long and thoughtful open letter, posted on her X and Instagram accounts, in which she detailed the double standards faced in women’s sport, and the unfair advantage given to her male counterparts because their matches are broadcast more frequently, and to a wider audience because of favourable scheduling.

“I couldn't keep my silence any more,” she told The National on Saturday. “I've seen a lot of bad comments and especially after I spoke about the French Open and night sessions and some people were tweeting about empty seats and I'm like, ‘You guys don't understand anything. You don't know what's really happening’. It's like a lot of ignorant people.

“And for me, I'm like, I really cannot keep it inside any more. It's frustrating to me as a woman, to any woman athlete around the world and I want to be part of the people that would speak up. I would not want to stay silent.”

Jabeur is set to kick off her Wimbledon campaign against Viktoriya Tomova on Monday, hoping to recapture the form that helped her reach two back-to-back finals at the All England Club in 2022 and 2023.

A former world No 2, Jabeur has dropped to 59 in the rankings following a year riddled with injuries.

Wimbledon has been the site of some of her biggest and most historic achievements, but it’s also where she suffered her most heart-rending defeats, in the 2022 final against Elena Rybakina and the 2023 decider against Marketa Vondrousova.

“It's a good and bad memory here. So I'm trying to really enjoy as much as I can,” she says.

“Try to find that freedom when I'm playing and the joy when I'm playing. It's been a tough year, I would say. But yeah, it is what it is. I'm trying to repeat some positive words to myself that … I don't want to carry the disappointment that happened before and then hopefully I can move on with it.”

Jabeur has spent the last few days practising with some of the best players on tour, including world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No 9 Paula Badosa, and No 12 Diana Shnaider.

The three-time Grand Slam finalist admits she has “no expectations” entering these Championships. She is a modest 15-14 win-loss for the season, and her build-up to Wimbledon included a quarter-final run as a lucky loser in Berlin, and an opening round defeat in Eastbourne.

Asked to describe her biggest challenge at the moment, Jabeur said: “It's always, I think, mentally. Because if you're mentally ready and want to do everything, I think it's easier to overcome any physical struggle or anything. But yeah, being on and off didn't help much.

“The ability of believing in myself that I can come back like before, it's been a bit low and that really affected me.

“So yeah, it’s just about a lot of believing in myself more than ever because coming back at a certain level, it's never easy. So I hope I can overcome that.

“Sometimes two, three matches will give you the confidence and the ability to know that you can do it. Right now, I need to trust more my body. I need to hopefully get better on the court and find my movements.”