Tunisian tennis star Ons Jabeur drops out of 2024 tennis circuit
Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, currently ranked 22nd in the Women's Tennis Association, will step away from tennis until 2025 as she recovers from a shoulder injury.
Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur on Monday announced that she will not be competing for the rest of the 2024 season after withdrawing from tournaments in Washington, Cincinnati and the US Open in August.
“Due to my ongoing shoulder injury, my medical team and I’ve made the difficult decision to step off the tennis circuit for the rest of the season,” Jabeur wrote in a post on X. She added, “I will see you back on the court in Australia 2025,” referring to the January 2025 Australian Open tournament.
🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/Hp0Vvtuvxh
— Ons Jabeur (@Ons_Jabeur) September 16, 2024
Ons Jabeur, currently ranked 22nd in the Women’s Tennis Association, became the first Arab player to make the top 10 rankings in 2021 and in 2022 reached a career high of second in the WTA. The 26-year-old Tunis resident has won five WTA singles titles, all from 2021 to 2023, after which a series of injuries impacted her performance.
In January 2024, Jabeur signed an exclusive apparel sponsorship deal with Saudi Public Investment Fund-owned fitness brand Kayanee. The sponsorship is another step in the PIF’s venture into the global sports arena. The sponsorship is another opportunity to express her solidarity with the Arab world. In November 2023, she promised to donate a portion of her Cancun WTA Finals prize money to Palestinian aid.
Ons Jabeur of Tunisia poses for a photograph on the beach at the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun 2023 on Oct. 27, 2023, in Cancun, Mexico. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Jabeur has repeatedly voiced her support for a Saudi-WTA collaboration despite some backlash in the tennis world. In February 2024, she told Agence France-Presse of a potential WTA tournament in Saudi Arabia, “If the WTA Finals goes there, I will be one of the supportive players," promising "not just to go play matches there, but also to do a campaign. To go there and do a lot more than just playing tennis.”
She added, “I feel like people should be more informed about what’s happening in Saudi; more informed about how the country is getting better and better, and I feel like it’s important not to just listen to one side — in anything, to be honest with you, not just in this matter, but to anything.”
Jabeur’s absence leaves just one Arab tennis player in the WTA top 100: 28-year-old Egyptian Mayar Sherif, who is currently ranked 88th. Sherif has won one singles title and one doubles title on the WTA tour with a career-high ranking of 31st.
