Ons Jabeur claims it is ‘unbearable to play’ after Dubai withdrawal
Ons Jabeur has been forced to withdraw from the Dubai Tennis Championships, revealing that her knee injury has become too painful to compete with.
Jabeur has been dealing with issues related to her right knee for a while, and the Tunisian underwent surgery on it last year that forced her to miss the Middle Eastern swing.
When playing in the Abu Dhabi Open quarter-finals this year, Jabeur broke down in tears against Beatriz Haddad Maia, to which she later revealed was due to her recurring knee troubles.
Despite this, Jabeur travelled to Doha for the Qatar Open, suffering a straight sets defeat to Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.
And now the two-time Wimbledon finalist has confirmed her withdrawal from the WTA 1000 event in Dubai, “Dear friends and family, I wanted to share with you all that my knee is not holding, it’s been unbearable to play with the pain and not being able to give my best on the court is frustrating.
“After consultation of my doctors and team we have decided that I will have to withdraw from Dubai this week and go for more medical treatments. Looking forward to reconnect with all on the courts for the US swing. Thank you for your continuous support. Love you, Ons.”
Jabeur has since been replaced by lucky loser Cristina Bucsa, and the tournament has now released a statement of its own on the world No.6’s exit, “Regrettably Ons Jabeur has had to pull out of this year’s tournament. We know how much this event means to her, playing in front of a strong Arab support.
“We wish her all the best in her recovery from injury and look forward to seeing her back in Dubai very soon.”
Jabeur is next entered to compete at Indian Wells in California, which begins on Sunday 3rd March.
Inside the baseline…
Since the start of the season, it has been clear that Ons Jabeur has not been feeling right and this has shown in the Tunisian’s form, having won only two of her five matches. Jabeur should probably not have played the Middle East swing, but after missing it last year probably felt more pressure to at least try and give it a go. Hopefully Jabeur can use this time to recover, but it is quite concerning that surgery does not seem to have fixed the issue.
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