ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL

December 31, 2022

Ons Jabeur

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Ons, just talk us through your preparation for this Australian swing in 2023.

ONS JABEUR: Well, just great to be here. Such nice weather. I love to be back in Australia. This is my first time here, actually here, so I had like an exhibition match, but the timing for preseason was less than the other times since I played the WTA finals. I think we worked pretty hard, and it was a great preseason, and hopefully I'm ready to start this tournament.

Q. Are you celebrating New Year's Eve here tonight?

ONS JABEUR: Well, yeah, I'm going out for dinner with actually Danielle Collins and my husband, so it's going to be nice. It was tough to find a restaurant, but I'm not sure I will stay up late, to be honest with you.

Q. Are you staying at the hotel --

ONS JABEUR: Yes.

Q. There's obviously a big cricket match tonight.

ONS JABEUR: There is? I have never watched a match, to be honest with you.

Q. It's a big game, Adelaide Strikers --

ONS JABEUR: If you teach me the rules I'll go watch.

Q. I'd need three weeks. It's a long game. What I was going to say, there will be lots of fireworks happening just here tonight.

ONS JABEUR: Cool, I'll watch -- at midnight, I assume.

Q. 9:00 and then repeated at midnight, yeah.

ONS JABEUR: I'll probably watch the one at 9:00 because I probably will sleep before the second one.

Q. I was looking at your Grand Slam record, and obviously you've been playing for about eight years. You've had a steady improvement year after year after year, and obviously the Wimbledon final, the U.S., as well. Is this your year, 2023, to finally win a major?

ONS JABEUR: I mean, I was kind of ready to win it last year -- I mean, this year, but it didn't happen, and it didn't happen for a reason, obviously. I'm glad that I got the experience enough to have two finals in a Grand Slam. We've worked really hard to improve a lot of things during the preseason. We are more aware of my game. I am more aware of my body, my game.

It's a great thing. I feel like this year is going to be very special for me. I gave it all. I put in the hard work during practices, and I'm hitting the ball good.

What has to be done is to play good matches and do whatever I did in the practices and follow that.

I'm doing everything possible to win a Grand Slam, and for me, I'm just going to go for it. This year, 2023, is about just be free and play my game on the court.

Q. Do you enjoy the playing conditions in Australia, the hard courts, the heat?

ONS JABEUR: Yeah, I love the Centre Court here. We're lucky because it's covered, so we don't feel 100 percent the heat.

Yeah, I am from Tunisia so we're kind of used to the hot weather. It's a good thing. But I think the other player is used to it. Most of the year is spent playing in a tough conditions.

I feel like the most important thing is to be ready that week, to hydrate better, and to do the routine that you usually do when it's hot weather.

Q. This time last year it was all about Ash Barty and whether she would win the Australian Open --

ONS JABEUR: This year is all about Ons Jabeur, if she's going to win the Australian Open. You know, similar game, just different nationality. Netflix is coming out, so maybe...

Q. When Ash retired in April, what were your thoughts? Were you surprised, staggered or shocked?

ONS JABEUR: I wasn't really surprised because I know Ash, and she always like wanted to -- she does everything. She arrives to win anything and that's it. She wants to move on to something else. You can see her, sometimes she didn't play a lot of tournaments. When COVID was bad, she didn't play at the beginning.

But I mean, a lot of respect for her because we played juniors together, as well, so it's also sad to see her leaving because I feel like if she stayed, she would probably -- like I don't know how many Grand Slams she could win, all of them, and I'm sure about it.

But I feel like the most important thing, she was happy with what she was doing, and she had enough of tennis, and now she wanted to move on to something else.

Q. I think the women's game has somehow got stronger since Ash left. I know that sounds ridiculous, but a lot of women have come together. It seems very competitive at the top 10, top 15.

ONS JABEUR: Well, it's always competitive. I just like the idea of not knowing who's going to win.

But I feel like it's been the same. When you play a top-10 player, it's always tough to beat. We're always trying to maintain at that level.

With Iga's result, she gave us a lot of confidence to go after her, and that's competitive, which is good about it because Ash was doing that, now Iga is doing the same thing and other players. Aryna is such a fighter on the court, and Pegula is also playing really well.

It's nice to maintain that certain level as a top 10 and kind of tough to win against them.

Q. Do you mind if I ask you a political question? It's about the World Cup and I know you're a big soccer fan. In the western media in the weeks leading up to the World Cup there was constant criticism of Qatar hosting it, oppression, women's rights, et cetera --

ONS JABEUR: Women's rights? Human rights mostly.

Q. Well, human rights and women's rights in the sense of they can be second-class citizens to a degree in Qatar. But we've never heard a view from a leading women's -- Arab women's sports person. I wonder whether you thought all that criticism of Qatar was unjust or a western --

ONS JABEUR: I think it was unjust, to be honest with you. There is in every country you can find something is not right, and for some reason Qatar now is organizing the World Cup, and everybody was criticizing.

It's just like if you go to any country, you respect their culture, right. For me it was just you go there, you respect the rules and everything, and I feel like it was the cleanest World Cup ever. There was no stealing; there was no crime; there was no nothing there happened.

For me, I don't think they will have a nicer World Cup because you can watch four matches in a day, which is impossible in other World Cups. You have to fly to different -- people were very respectful there. Not just the World Cup, but we play every year in Qatar, we play in Dubai, and such a great organization.

It's just time to maybe let other countries shine, and I think Qatar had a great organization in the World Cup.

Q. Did you watch the Tunisia-Australia game?

ONS JABEUR: No, that's why they lost maybe.

No, I went to a friend's for Tunisia and went for the World Cup final, which I was lucky and blessed to --

Q. You went?

ONS JABEUR: Yeah, to witness this final. It's unbelievable.

Q. I know I read that you like Real Madrid as a team.

ONS JABEUR: Yes.

Q. What about Lionel Messi?

ONS JABEUR: I mean, I am happy for him. Obviously I'm a Cristiano Ronaldo fan, but when you see history, it's great.

Also a big fan of Mbappe right now and very impressed with his game. I mean, I always followed him but now even more.

Just amazing to see like breaking records from everywhere, like from Mbappe, from Messi, and I'm happy for Argentina really.

Q. As a leading sports person in another sport, does going to an event like the World Cup final, does that give you an extra sort of feeling of wow, that you want to try and go and do big things in your sport? Does it motivate you?

ONS JABEUR: Listen, sports is all about changing things, and I feel like when you see the World Cup, like everybody is there, everybody is united, everybody is like singing, and how the sport could change this, yeah, I would want to say that in tennis. Actually we see that in tennis in the big tournaments. You see how people are supporting others.

From my example, playing a final at Wimbledon or at the US Open, you could see that all Tunisians are watching my match and united. That's the beauty of the sport, really.