Clay specialist Jabeur has self-belief
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
PARIS • Tunisian Ons Jabeur has been marked as one of the big threats to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek at the French Open and she is certainly not lacking in belief.
Ranked a career-high sixth, Jabeur, 27, won 11 straight matches before losing to 2020 Roland Garros winner Swiatek in the final of the WTA 1000 event in Rome last week.
It was the 28th straight victory for Swiatek, who is considered an overwhelming favourite to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup for a second time on the Parisian clay with the Grand Slam starting today.
But no player has won more matches on clay this year than Jabeur, who triumphed at the Madrid Open to become the first Arab or African player to capture a WTA 1000 title. She was also second in the Charleston clay event.
"I stand by what I said earlier, that you should believe that you can win against players that have great momentum like Iga right now," Jabeur, who will take on Magda Linette of Poland in the first round, said on Friday.
"But the most important thing is to focus on yourself rather than who you are playing. If you are playing a great player, you can start being stressed or overwhelmed with the image of that player. I think everybody has to focus on their self and believe they can beat great players."
She added that her main goal was to make it to the second week and will be happy if she managed to reach the semi-finals. She credited her improved fitness for her recent results and said she had wanted three things at the start of the season: to be in the top five, win more titles, and win a Slam.
"I'm getting there in all those three," she said with a smile. "I don't want to put the bad pressure on myself that I have to do it this year. But I always believe that I can win a Grand Slam."
Swiatek, who faces Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko, is also not putting too much pressure on herself and said that she will not be "heartbroken" if her 28-match unbeaten run comes to an end at Roland Garros.
She has not lost since falling to Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai in February. Her streak is the longest on the WTA tour since Serena Williams won 34 matches in a row in 2013.
"I'm aware that this streak is something that may be coming to an end soon," said Swiatek.
"I think being aware of that is pretty healthy. I haven't played a Grand Slam since the streak started. So I guess we're going to see if everything I have been doing before is going to be enough."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
FRENCH OPEN
Day 1: Singtel TV Ch126/127 & StarHub Ch211/213, 4.50pm
Others to watch
BARBORA KREJCIKOVA, 26, CZE
Last year's champion is good on clay as she was the first player to win both the singles and doubles in Paris since Mary Pierce in 2000. However, the world No. 2 faces a race against time to recover from an arm injury that has sidelined her since late February.
ARYNA SABALENKA, 24, BLR
The world No. 7 is showing signs of finding her best form after struggling to start the year.
She dropped only one set in Rome in the lead-up to Roland Garros, before falling in straight sets in the semi-finals to Swiatek.
NAOMI OSAKA, 24, JPN
The Japanese returns to the scene of her dramatic withdrawal following the bitter fallout from her media boycott. The four-time Grand Slam champion has never gone beyond the third round at the French Open.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
