“All like Ons Jabeur”, little Tunisian girls gathered at the end of the week for a tournament said they dreamed of imitating their model, the noh 6, who reached the Wimbledon final for the second time but failed to win her first Grand Slam.
9/10 year olds compete on the dozen courts of the “Tennis Club of Tunis” in the Alain Savary district, near the city center, which was the very first club created in the country.
On the clay courts, sometimes sheltered from the scorching sun by tall trees, Lina, Yassmine and Emna hit the little yellow ball vigorously. Their families, mostly from the Tunisian middle class, came to encourage them.
Ibtissem Treimech, mother of a budding champion, confirms to AFP the collective enthusiasm for Jabeur’s career: “When they see Ons Jabeur participating twice in two successive years in two Grand Slams and succeeding in being a finalist, children and parents are inspired and parents encourage their children to take up the sport even more,” she says.
In total girls and boys play 8 matches.
“Becoming like Ons Jabeur”
“I am able to become like Ons Jabeur and participate in Grand Slam tournaments like Wimbledon and Roland Garros,” bravely told AFP Lina Chedli, 9, daughter of Ibtissem.
The player, a national icon in Tunisia, has sparked unprecedented enthusiasm for tennis in the past three years, in a country where soccer is usually king. Especially in little girls.
Yasmine Ben Mabrouk, a 9-year-old child, has no doubts about her talent: “I think I will become a very great tennis player like Ons Jabeur and I will take part in very great matches. »
Not far from there, Emna Bartagisse, 10, even thinks she can “become better than Ons Jabeur”.
At the other end of the metropolis on Saturday afternoon, the disappointment could be read on the faces of the fans of the Gammarth Tennis Club, who followed on the big screen the final, lost by the Tunisian against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova (6 -4, 6-4).
“I’m disappointed because Ons lost and she represents our country. I was hoping for her to win this final! In truth, it’s a shame! “, told AFP Ali Ben Chedly, a young boy, who came with his father.
Beside her, her brother Mehdi curses, believing that victory was within reach: “She can’t control herself! When she thinks she’s winning, she doesn’t play like when she’s trying to win. »
Proud of being a “100% Tunisian product”, Tunisian supporters regularly praise her tactical and varied game, punctuated by drop shots and net climbing and her sense of camaraderie with her partners.
His perseverance and his ability to overcome a series of wrist and calf injuries that caused him to miss part of the 2022/2023 season also command admiration.
Coming from a middle-class family in the suburbs of Sousse, a seaside resort in the center-east, Ons Jabeur is close to his audience and spends long minutes at the end of each match signing autographs and taking selfies.
Since bursting onto the screen in January 2020 at the Australian Open becoming the first Arab player to qualify for a quarter-final of the Grand Slam, the young woman of almost 29 years old has become a national pride in Tunisia.
More recently, she was even nicknamed “Minister of Happiness” for her ability to boost the morale of a country in the grip of a serious economic and political crisis, since the coup by which President Kais Saied seized the full powers in the summer of 2021.