Ons Jabeur has revealed that she was planning to have a baby if she won her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last summer. The world No. 6 was in tears as she lost her second successive final to Marketa Vondrousova in 2023. In a new documentary, she has since admitted that it was because “the idea of having a baby just vanished with the trophy of Wimbledon”.
Jabeur looked to be on her way to redemption at Wimbledon last year when she reached the final following a year of difficulties. The 29-year-old struggled with multiple injury setbacks and was out of form when she arrived at the All England Club but managed to storm into the final for the second year in a row, beating four Grand Slam champions en route.
But she fell at the final hurdle once again, this time losing 6-4 6-3 to Marketa Vondrousova in the championship match. Fans originally assumed that Jabeur’s outpouring of emotion was the result of getting so close at Wimbledon just to come up short for the second time. The Tunisian was also trying to become the first Arab and African woman to win a Major, leaving some questioning whether her desire to win had a wider meaning.
But the five-time title winner has now explained that she was instead left devastated because the defeat ruined her plans of taking a break to have a baby. “People think I have this pressure because I want to do it for other people, which is not true. There was a personal thing going on there. I win that [final], I could have a baby right away,” Jabeur said in her documentary This is Me, per The National.
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“And that dream faded. I was haunted by fear. After all I’m just a human being, what can I do more?” Jabeur is married to her fitness trainer, Karim Kamoun, and confessed that the pair were left “crying like babies” following another Grand Slam final loss after Wimbledon and the US Open in 2022.
She continued: “It was the toughest loss of my career because emotionally it destroyed me, not only winning Wimbledon, but the idea of having a baby just vanished with the trophy of Wimbledon. So I think that’s what killed me and Karim, we were crying like babies.”
