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September 2, 2022
Ons Jabeur has battled her way into the third round of the 2022 US Open.
You knew that, right?
Understandably, the legendary Serena Williams night match in the third round against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic is huge news, yet there is another big story in the making, perhaps flying under the radar.
When you come from an enchanted land where movies of lore are made, it is good to be one of the firsts at your craft.
History is watching you.
Up close.
It is even better to be the absolute first.
The talented Ons Jabeur is a Tunisian professional tennis player.
She has been ranked as high as world No. 2, by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), first achieved on June 27, 2022.
Ms. Jabeur is the current No. 1 Tunisian player, and the highest-ranked Arab tennis player in ATP and WTA rankings history.
Now that is a first.
Enchanting.
Little Ons was first introduced to tennis at age three by her mother.
She reached two junior major girls’ singles finals at the French Open in 2010 and 2011, winning the latter.
She was the first Arab player to win a junior Grand Slam singles title since Ismail El Shafei won the Wimbledon boys’ title in 1964.
Another first.
She is going to have one special history section in the Arab world.
After nearly a decade playing primarily at the ITF level, Ons started competing more regularly on the WTA Tour beginning in 2017.
She won the Arab Woman of the Year Award in 2019. Very special.
At the 2020 Australian Open, Jabeur became the first Arab woman to reach the quarterfinals of a major, a feat she repeated at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.
The firsts just keep coming. We expect more.
Ons is hot on the trail of the number one player in the world.
Iga Swiatek awaits a showdown. Possibly here.
Possibly.
Or Serena Williams.
Once thought impossible, given how Serena has been playing, a deep run is now a possibility.
Ons builds her style of play around variety and hitting what she refers to as “crazy shots”.
She tries to employ difficult shots because that is how she enjoys to play tennis.
She likes to utilize slice and drop shots in particular. She can also hit winners in a variety of ways, including backhand drop shots from the baseline or forehands up the line.
She likes to play on any surface. That is very apparent.
Ready for some more firsts?
She won her first WTA title at the 2021 Birmingham Classic, becoming the first Arab woman to win a WTA Tour title.
She won her biggest title at the 2022 Madrid Open, a WTA 1000 event, becoming the first African player to win a title at this level.
Ons was quoted as giving praise and credit to her parents for the sacrifices they made when she was growing up, saying, “My parents sacrificed a lot of things – my mom used to drive me everywhere around Tunisia to go play the tournaments, and she encouraged me to go to a special school to study. That was a big sacrifice to see her little girl going for a dream that, honestly, wasn’t 100% guaranteed. She believed in me and gave me the confidence to be there.”
Understood.
Few important dreams are guaranteed. In fact, virtually none are.
They are for adventurers, risk-takers, fortune hunters and the brave.
That’s why if you accomplish them, you have a chance of creating new history, as Ons has on more than one occasion.
Recently the BBC commented on one of Ons big victories and another first, “The 27-year-old, the world number 10, trailed 4-1 early on and failed to win a game in the second set but still beat American Jessica Pegula 7-5 0-6 6-2.
A showdown there is a possibility as well.
It is Jabeur’s second career title after winning in Birmingham last year. She was the first Arab player – male or female – to break into the world’s top 10.”
Another impressive feat.
We’ve been introduced to her proud parents but let’s travel to the village that raised her.
Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa.
It contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert, with much of its remaining territory arable land.
Its 800 miles of coastline include the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin.
Tunisia is home to Africa’s northernmost point, Cape Angela; and its capital and largest city is Tunis, located on its northeastern coast, which lends the country its name.
From early antiquity, Tunisia was inhabited by the indigenous Berbers.
Phoenicians began to arrive in the 12th century BC, establishing several settlements, of which Carthage emerged as the most powerful by the 7th century BC.
A major mercantile empire and a military rival of the Roman Republic, Carthage was defeated by the Romans in 146 BC, who occupied Tunisia for most of the next 800 years, introducing Christianity and leaving architectural legacies.
Wow, 800 years. By comparison, the United States clocks in at 246 years.
That may place a lot of things in perspective.
The global travelers at Lonely Planet extol, “It may be but a slim wedge of North Africa’s vast horizontal expanse, but Tunisia has enough history and diverse natural beauty to pack a country many times its size.
With a balmy, sand-fringed Mediterranean coast, scented with jasmine and sea breezes, and where the fish on your plate is always fresh, Tunisia is prime territory for a straightforward sun-sand-and-sea holiday. But beyond the beaches, it’s a thrilling, underrated destination where distinct cultures and incredible extremes of landscape – forested coastlines, Saharan sand seas in the south – can be explored in just a few days.”
Impressive.
About those movies made here.
Here are some classics you are sure to have enjoyed. Raiders of the Lost Ark and three Star Wars blockbusters.
Tunisia has produced someone really special.
As Ons continues to compile victories, break records and make history with her resume of firsts, when someone like this is in front of you, right now, follow her, sit back and enjoy the precious moments.
You are watching history being made.
Literally.
Her enchanting movie is soon to come and we know an ideal location where it could be filmed.
The 2022 US Open.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO fciwomenswrestling2.com Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com fcielitecompetitor.com Peter-Menzel-Ons-Jabeur-wikipedia photo credit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ons_Jabeur
https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/61366137
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_shot_in_Tunisia
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/tunisia
https://www.wtatennis.com/players/316847/ons-jabeur
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
