Ons Jabeur ‘satisfied’ to reach Slam goal but not done after making Open Era history
Ons Jabeur has defeated Ajla Tomljanovic in her first ever US Open quarter-final, and in doing so became the first African woman in the Open Era to make it to the last four at the American Slam.
The Wimbledon finalist has backed up her run to the final at SW19 with a US Open campaign that has so far seen her to the semi-finals, defeating Australia’s Tomljanovic 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) to get there.
After the victory, Jabeur revealed that she had in fact achieved her pre-tournament goal by getting to the last four.
“I told her literally I’m setting a goal to be in the semi-final,” she said in her post-match press conference of a conversation she had with reporter Reem Abulleil before the US Open. “I didn’t want to get my hopes [and say] ‘I’m going for the title’ right away without having any matches.
“I just wanted to take it, it wasn’t slow, semi-final, to be honest with you, but I was just trying to focus on each match and, yeah, comparing here, I was really fresh physically, and just trying to build that confidence each match. I think you can see that it was going much better each match.”
After losing the Wimbledon final back in July, Jabeur revealed that she had always envisioned winning the tournament, even changing the lock screen on her phone to a picture of the women’s trophy.
“Apparently I should have put the other one,” she joked.
After downing Tomljanovic in New York, the Tunisian spoke further on that mindset.
“I have to say things out loud and kind of manifest them in my way,” she explained. “Yeah, I am very satisfied with the semi-final.
“But now, only two matches left, I’m going to give it my all. You know, I’m just very happy that I could adapt very fast on the hard court. The most important thing for me is really proving to myself that I could play on any surface. That’s very, very important for me and for my confidence.”
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