Ons Jabeur will play alongside Serena Williams at the 2022 Eastbourne Internationals. It is the tournament which will be held before the 2022 Wimbledon Open.
The 2022 Eastbourne Internationals tournament will be played in the week before Wimbledon. Williams will then compete at the All England Club, where she is a seven-time singles champion. Serena will make her return to Grand Slam tennis at Wimbledon this month after being given a wildcard entry to the singles.
Serena Williams has not played since injuring herself last year. She will make her return to tennis playing doubles at Eastbourne alongside current world no.3, Ons Jabeur.
Serena Williams is officially here in Eastbourne as she prepares for her comeback after a one year layoff.
She spent this afternoon training with Frances Tiafoe at the off-site training courts. pic.twitter.com/my3Tskc4ZL
— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) June 19, 2022
Recently speaking to Arab News, Ons shared her excitement of playing with tennis legend, Serena Williams. She said, “It’s great, I cannot wait to see her (Serena), and I cannot wait to speak with her, it’s such an honour and pleasure.”
She added, “Honestly I’m nervous but I’m going to try to focus on playing tennis and maybe not admiring Serena a lot. I’m such a big fan and it’s honestly a huge honour for me to share the court with her. And to kind of be part of her comeback journey.”
Ons Jabeur on sharing the court with Serena Williams
Serena Williams is yet to be back on the court after a hamstring injury which forced her to withdraw from the 2020 US Open. She has not competed in the tennis circuit since Wimbledon 2021. She withdrew from the tournament as she suffered a hamstring injury to her right leg in her first round match. Her hamstring discomfort kept her off the field for months.
Initially scheduled to play singles at the WTA 500 tournament Tunisian superstar, Ons Jabeur will only focus on doubles with Serena. The 27-year-old is heading into the tournament on the back of winning the Betti Open in Berlin, at ATP 500 tournament wherein she was the top seed.
An unfortunate end for @BelindaBencic who has been forced to retire due to injury ❤️🩹
Final match score 6-3, 2-1 ret. for Jabeur.#bett1open pic.twitter.com/VAHpmWAoOZ
— wta (@WTA) June 19, 2022
Jabeur will be just the 6th woman to play doubles with Serena after Venus, Martina Navratilova, Alexandra Stevenson, Alison Riske, and Caroline Wozniacki.
While speaking to Arab News, Ons Jabeur shared that she practices with Venus quite frequently. She strongly believes that Venus Williams had talked Serena Williams into picking her as a doubles partner. She said, “I usually speak with Venus more than Serena. I feel like there is a 50 percent chance that Venus had something to do with it. It was great, you would say yes right away of course. It’s a pleasure that she chose me, it’s unbelievable.”
She further added, “I don’t know honestly why she picked me but I’m glad that she did. Maybe Venus had something to do with it. Maybe she was watching a bit of tennis and she saw some North-African girl playing good lately. So maybe that kind of helped. I hope she was watching the Madrid final as well.”
The Tunisian-American duo takes the court for their first-round match on 21st June 2022 against Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo.
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