Ons Jabeur

Jabeur began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit in August 2007 on the week of her 13th birthday. With compatriot Nour Abbès, she won the doubles event of her debut tournament, the Grade 5 Al Fatah ITF Junior Tournament in Lebanon. She defeated Abbès to win her first Grade 5 singles event at the 2009 Fujairah ITF Junior Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates, where she also won the doubles event with Abbès. Later in the year, she started to have more success at higher-level tournaments, finishing runner-up at the Grade 2 International Junior Championships of Morocco and winning the Grade 2 Smash International Junior Championships in Egypt, both in singles. She made her junior Grand Slam debut at the 2009 US Open, losing her opening match to Laura Robson.

Jabeur started to produce strong results at the junior majors and other Grade A events in May 2010. In the doubles event at the Trofeo Bonfiglio, she partnered with Charlène Seateun to reach the semifinals. Two weeks later, she played the 2010 French Open and upset third seed Irina Khromacheva in the semifinals before finishing runner-up to Elina Svitolina. She also performed well at Wimbledon, reaching the quarterfinals in singles and the semifinal in doubles. She lost to Yulia Putintseva in singles, and Khromacheva and Svitolina in doubles alongside Monica Puig. Putintseva defeated Jabeur again at the US Open. Jabeur entered the doubles event with Putintseva and lost in the quarterfinals to Khromacheva again, who had partnered with Daria Gavrilova. Following the US Open, Jabeur had left wrist surgery in November that kept her out for five months until April 2011.

The last two singles events of Jabeur's junior career were the 2011 French Open and the 2011 Wimbledon Championships. At the French Open, she won her only junior Grand Slam title to become the first North African woman to win a junior Grand Slam tournament. As the ninth seed, she upset top seed Daria Gavrilova in the quarterfinals, third seed Caroline Garcia in the semifinals, and then fifth seed Monica Puig in the final. This title helped her rise to No. 4 in the world in the junior rankings. She also became the first Arab girl to win a junior Grand Slam singles title in history, and the first junior in general since Ismail El Shafei won the Wimbledon boys' title in 1964. Jabeur also entered the doubles event at the Grade 1 Junior International Roehampton, which she won while partnering with Ashleigh Barty.

Jabeur began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2008 at the age of 14. In October 2009, she finished runner-up in both singles and doubles at a $10k tournament in Monastir near her hometown, losing to Elise Tamaëla in both events. She won her first title at the $10k level in singles in May 2010 in Antalya, Turkey. She then won the singles and doubles events at another $10k tournament in Casablanca, Morocco two months later.

After having left wrist surgery at the end of the year and winning a junior Grand Slam title, Jabeur moved up to the $25k and $50k levels in the summer of 2011. She made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the age of 17 as a wildcard at the Premier 5 Qatar Ladies Open in February 2012, where she lost her first career match to No. 103 Virginie Razzano, in three sets. She was also given a wildcard into the qualifying competition at the Dubai Tennis Championships the following week. Although she did not qualify, she upset world No. 33 Zheng Jie with a ranking of No. 1169. Jabeur did not have much success at the ITF Circuit in 2012, only reaching one final, which came in singles and was her first at the $25k level. She also entered qualifying at the French Open, but only won one match. Jabeur finished the year ranked No. 260 in the world.

After a slow start to 2013, Jabeur won her first $25k title in April 2013 in Tunis. She then won back-to-back $50k titles over An-Sophie Mestach in Japan in May to bring her into the top 200 for the first time. In July, Jabeur played in her second WTA tournament main draw at the Baku Cup. She upset top seed, defending champion, and world No. 37, Bojana Jovanovski, in the second round before losing in the quarterfinals to Magda Linette. She entered the qualifying competitions at Wimbledon and the US Open, losing her opening match in both events. A third $50k title at the Saguenay Challenger with a win in the final over CoCo Vandeweghe took her to a new career-high of 139. In 2014, she played the main draw in the Malaysian Open losing to Giulia Gatto-Monticone in the first round.

Jabeur stayed inside the top 200 for most of the next three years, but could not enter the top 100, reaching a career-best ranking of 118 in 2015. She continued to play a mix of ITF and WTA events but played primarily at the ITF level. Her only ITF title in 2014 came at a $25k event in Tunis, and she did not win any titles in 2015. She finished runner-up twice in 2014, with the higher-level result coming at the $50k Open Nantes Atlantique, losing to Kateřina Siniaková. After losing in qualifying at the French Open and Wimbledon, Jabeur qualified for two major main draws in a row at the 2014 US Open and the 2015 Australian Open. She lost her opening matches at both tournaments to No. 19 Andrea Petkovic and Vera Zvonareva, respectively. With no titles, finals, or semifinals in 2015, her year-end ranking dropped to No. 210. Jabeur rebounded with two $25k titles in January 2016. A $50k title at the Nana Trophy in Tunis helped her return to the top 200 for all but one week through the rest of the season. Nonetheless, she lost in qualifying at both Wimbledon and the US Open and did not have a strong second half of the season. She finished the year at No. 193.

Jabeur participated in all four Grand Slam singles events in 2017 for the first time. After losing in the last round of qualifying at the Australian Open, she reached the French Open main draw as a lucky loser, the Wimbledon main draw as a qualifier, and the US Open main draw as a direct acceptance. She began to rise back up the rankings at the Premier-level Dubai Tennis Championships, where she qualified for the main draw and upset world No. 22, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, in the first round. This result brought her from No. 171 to No. 137.

After moderate success at the $60k level, Jabeur's next big breakthrough came at the French Open. As a lucky loser, she won two main-draw matches, including an upset of world No. 7, Dominika Cibulková, in the second round for her first top-10 victory. She lost in the third round to Timea Bacsinszky. At the end of July, she made her top-100 debut. Her only other Grand Slam main-draw match-win of the year was a first-round win over American wildcard Brienne Minor at the US Open, which cemented her place in the top 100 for the rest of the year.

Jabeur fell out of the top 100 in February 2018. She did not win her first match of the year until she reached the quarterfinals at the $60k Space Coast Pro Classic in April. After she lost in qualifying at the French Open, she dropped down to No. 180 in the world. Jabeur regained some of her ranking points when she won her first $100k title at the Manchester Trophy, bringing her back to No. 133.

With this title, she also earned a wildcard into the main draw at Wimbledon. She won her only Grand Slam main-draw match of the year at Wimbledon over Viktorija Golubic, who she defeated for the third time in the span of a month. Jabeur ended her season with the best result of her career to date. As a qualifier at the Premier-level Kremlin Cup, she finished runner-up to world No. 14, Daria Kasatkina. She defeated three top-25 players in the tournament, including No. 8 Sloane Stephens and No. 11 Anastasija Sevastova. With this result, she returned to the top 100 at a career-high of No. 62 in the world.

Jabeur played all four Grand Slam main draws for the first time in 2019, and stayed in the top 100 the entire year. She lost in the first round at the first three Grand Slam tournaments of the season, and did not win multiple main draw matches at any tournaments until after the French Open in May. Jabeur had a better second half of the season. She reached the semifinals at the Premier-level Eastbourne International, where she upset home favourite and world No. 19, Johanna Konta. She withdrew before the semifinal due to a right ankle injury.

Jabeur's next big result came at the US Open. She defeated No. 27 Caroline Garcia and then Aliaksandra Sasnovich to reach the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the second time in her career. She lost a tight three-set match to world No. 3, Karolína Plíšková, in the third round. With this success, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 51. The only other tournament of the year where Jabeur won multiple main-draw matches was the Tianjin Open in October. She defeated three players including No. 36 Yulia Putintseva, before losing to Rebecca Peterson in her second semifinal of the year.

Jabeur had a major breakthrough at the Australian Open. After defeating Johanna Konta and Caroline Garcia in the first two rounds, she beat Caroline Wozniacki in three sets in the last match of Wozniacki's career. Jabeur defeated a fourth top 50 player in succession in Wang Qiang before losing to eventual champion Sofia Kenin in the quarterfinals. With this result, she made her top-50 debut, and also became the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

The following month, Jabeur continued her progress after receiving two wildcards to both Premier tournaments in the Middle East. She held a match point against No. 2, Simona Halep, in a second-round loss at Dubai. She then reached the quarterfinals at the Qatar Ladies Open, where she upset world No. 3, Karolína Plíšková, in the third round. After the COVID-19 season suspension, Jabeur continued her good form at a Grand Slam level by reaching the third round of the US Open and the fourth round of the French Open for the first time in her career. She finished the year as world No. 31, her highest year-end ranking thus far.

Jabeur participated in both tournaments of the Charleston Open, reaching the semifinal at the Volvo Car Open, and the final of the second, the MUSC Health Women's Open, which she lost to Australian Astra Sharma. She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 24 on 10 May 2021. Seeded 25th at the French Open, she took her revenge by defeating Sharma in the second round to advance to the third round of a major for a sixth straight time. She defeated Magda Linette to reach the fourth round for a second time in this major where she lost to 24th seed Coco Gauff. Seeded second, Jabeur reached her third final in her career and made history as the first Arab woman to win a WTA Tour title at the Birmingham Classic by defeating Daria Kasatkina. At the same tournament, partnering with Australian Ellen Perez, Jabeur also reached her first doubles final, losing to Marie Bouzková and Lucie Hradecká.

At Wimbledon, Jabeur, seeded 21st, defeated five-time champion Venus Williams to become the first Tunisian tennis player, first Arab woman, and the first woman representing an African country since Cara Black from Zimbabwe in 2005, to reach the third round (or quarterfinals) at Wimbledon. This also marked her seventh consecutive third-round appearance at a major. She continued her run when, despite vomiting at the side of the court when at match point, she defeated former Wimbledon champion and 11th seed, Garbiñe Muguruza, to reach the fourth round, coming back from a set down to reach the second week and round of 16 for the first time.

The day before, Tunisian supporters who flocked to Wimbledon burst into song — the national soccer team song, because there isn't one for tennis — and shouted her name after her fourth-round victory over 2020 French Open champion Iga Świątek. She defeated seventh seed Iga Świątek (making another comeback from the first set down) to reach the quarterfinals, where she lost to second seed and also first-time quarterfinalist Aryna Sabalenka. As a result, she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 22 on 26 July 2021.

To begin the US Open Series, Jabeur played the Canadian Open seeded 13th, beating Clara Burel, Daria Kasatkina, and defending champion Bianca Andreescu before losing in the quarterfinals to Jessica Pegula in three sets. With this result, she made her top 20 debut the week of 16 August 2021. At Indian Wells, Jabeur reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal by defeating Anett Kontaveit in the quarterfinals. With the win, she propelled herself into a career-high ranking, becoming the first Arab tennis player to reach the top 10 in either ATP or WTA rankings history. After the withdrawal of Emma Raducanu from the exhibition event World Tennis Championship, Jabeur was given her place. She won the tournament, defeating Belinda Bencic in the final.

Jabeur started her season at the Sydney International. She defeated Astra Sharma in the first round and Petra Kvitová in the second round before losing to Anett Kontaveit in the quarterfinals. She subsequently withdrew from the Australian Open due to a back injury sustained in the Sydney tournament. In February, Jabeur played the Dubai Championships, where she defeated former world No. 2, Vera Zvonareva and Jessica Pegula, before falling to former No. 1, Simona Halep in the quarterfinals. She then entered the Qatar Ladies Open. After a first round bye, she defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Tereza Martincová before falling to Kontaveit again in the quarterfinals.

At the Indian Wells Open, Jabeur received a bye into the second round where she was upset by Daria Saville in three sets. She reached the fourth round at the Miami Open, falling to 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins in straight sets. Jabeur reached her first final of the year at the Charleston Open, where she fell to Belinda Bencic in three sets. In Stuttgart, she was defeated by Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals. Seeded eighth at the Madrid Open, the world No. 10 reached her first WTA 1000 final, besting Belinda Bencic and Simona Halep, before defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semifinals to become the first Arab player to reach a final at this level. She defeated Jessica Pegula in the final to become the first African player to win a WTA 1000 title, the ninth different winner at the Madrid Open and the 38th different winner in a WTA 1000 tournament (since 2009). At the Italian Open, she reached her second consecutive WTA 1000 final, defeating Sorana Cîrstea, Ajla Tomljanović, Yulia Putintseva, and fourth seed Maria Sakkari, before saving a match point in the semifinals against Daria Kasatkina for her 11th straight win. In the final, she lost to Iga Świątek in straight sets. By reaching the final at the Italian Open, Jabeur set a career-high ranking of world No. 6, on 16 May 2022. After having an excellent clay-court season, she then participated in the French Open, where she drew Magda Linette in the first round. She was shockingly defeated by Linette, after having a set and a break lead in the second set. Despite this, she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4, on 6 June 2022, following the conclusion of the tournament.

As the top seed, she won the German Open in Berlin after Belinda Bencic retired in the second set of the final. As a result, she moved to a new career-high ranking of world No. 3, on 20 June 2022. Jabeur initially entered the Eastbourne International singles draw seeded second, but withdrew before the tournament. Jabeur remained in the doubles draw as a wildcard, in which she partnered with Serena Williams, who was playing her first tournament since 2021 Wimbledon. Jabeur and Williams won their first-round match against Marie Bouzková and Sara Sorribes Tormo to set up a quarterfinal against Shuko Aoyama and Chan Hao-ching. They then reached the semifinals but Jabeur withdrew before their match with Magda Linette and Aleksandra Krunić citing a right knee injury. She achieved a new career-high in the singles rankings of world No. 2, on 27 June 2022, which was the highest-ranking for any African and Arab tennis player in WTA and ATP rankings history.

In London, she reached her second consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal, defeating Mirjam Björklund, Katarzyna Kawa, Diane Parry and 24th seed Elise Mertens. Defeating Marie Bouzková in the quarterfinal, she became the first Arab or North African woman ever to reach the semifinals of a major tournament. After that, she defeated Tatjana Maria to reach her maiden Grand Slam final, which made her the first African woman, and the first Arab or North African player, in the Open Era to enter a Grand Slam singles final. In the final, she lost to Elena Rybakina in three sets. Despite this, Wimbledon did not receive points due to athletes representing Russia and Belarus being banned from the tournament because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Leading up to the US Open during the North American summer, Jabeur lost in the second round at the Silicon Valley Classic and retired in her first round match against Zheng Qinwen at the Canadian Open. At the Cincinnati Open, Jabeur lost in the second round to Petra Kvitová, in three sets. At the US Open, she regained her form, advancing to the quarterfinals for the first time at this major defeating 31st seed Shelby Rogers, and then 18th seed Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets to record her first victory over the Russian in four meetings. She became the third African woman to make it into the quarterfinals of the US Open in the Open era – and the first from the northern part of the continent. The other African women to reach the US Open quarterfinals are Maryna Godwin (1968) and Amanda Coetzer (1994, 1996 and 1998), both from South Africa. However, although she eventually managed to reach the final (making her the first African woman and the first Arab woman to do so), she lost against Iga Świątek, in straight sets. Unlike Wimbledon, Jabeur received 1,300 points in the tournament.

Jabeur recorded her first win at a WTA Tour event in Africa against Ann Li at the inaugural edition of the WTA 250 tennis tournament in Tunisia, which she helped start in her home country. She was eventually defeated by Claire Liu in the quarterfinals. Jabeur made her debut at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth. She defeated Jessica Pegula in her second match of the group stage in three sets. However, she finished her campaign in the round-robin stage as she lost two out of her three matches against Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sákkari, respectively. She ended the best season of her career ranked No. 2 in the WTA rankings.

She started the year with two victories against Sorana Cîrstea and Ukrainian qualifier Marta Kostyuk in Adelaide International 1. She was defeated in the semifinals by 18-year old qualifier Linda Nosková, 102nd in the world, in three sets. In mid-January, she competed in the Australian Open and, defeating Tamara Zidanšek in three sets, she came up against Markéta Vondroušová. After an absence for a right knee injury which was treated by surgery, she returned to the circuit in March at Indian Wells, but lost in the third round against Vondroušová, after beating Magdalena Fręch. She fell in the first round of Miami the following week, beaten by Russian qualifier Varvara Gracheva.

In April, she won the Charleston Open by defeating in the final Belinda Bencic, taking her revenge for the previous year loss in the final. She reached the final without losing a set, with wins over Lesia Tsurenko, Caroline Dolehide, Anna Kalinskaya and Daria Kasatkina. She took part in the Stuttgart Grand Prix two weeks later and took out former Roland Garros winner Jeļena Ostapenko and Beatriz Haddad Maia but had to retire in the semifinal against top seed Iga Świątek, after three games due to a left calf injury. This injury also forced her to give up defending her title at the Madrid Open. She returned to the Italian Open but lost in the first match against former world No. 2, Paula Badosa.

At Roland Garros, she eliminated the Italian Lucia Bronzetti, the local Océane Dodin, the last Frenchwoman in the running, and Olga Danilović, both out of the top 100 to join as in 2020 and 2021 the round of 16 Porte d'Auteuil. She finds the American Bernarda Pera, a novice at this stage. She dismisses her and goes to the quarterfinals for the first time in her career in the tournament. Against Haddad Maia, the match was more complicated and she was overthrown after a long duel.

As defending champion in Berlin, she lost in the first round against the German qualifier Jule Niemeier, and in the second round in Eastbourne, she was beaten by Camila Giorgi. At Wimbledon, Jabeur managed to eliminate four Grand Slam champions on her way to the final including Bianca Andreescu in the third round, Petra Kvitová in the fourth, defending champion Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, and world No. 2, Aryna Sabalenka, in the semifinals. However, she lost in straight sets to world No. 42, Markéta Vondroušová in the final, which she described as the "most painful loss" in her career.

She won her fifth title defeating Diana Shnaider in the final of the 2023 Ningbo Open.

At the Australian Open, Jabeur lost in the second round for a second consecutive year, this time to the 16-year old Mirra Andreeva who was making her tournament debut and ranked No. 47 at the time. This was also Andreeva's first top-10 win in her career.

At the French Open, she reached the quarterfinals for a second consecutive time, with wins over wildcard Sachia Vickery, Camila Osorio, 31st seed Leylah Fernandez and Clara Tauson. She lost to third seed Coco Gauff.

At the beginning of the grass season, as the top seed, she reached also the quarterfinals at the 2024 Nottingham Open with a win over qualifier Linda Fruhvirtová. Seeded eight, she reached a third quarterfinal in a row at the 2024 Berlin Ladies Open, with wins over qualifier Xinyu Wang and Linda Nosková.

She went out in the third round of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, losing to Elina Svitolina.

Jabeur withdrew from the US Open due to a shoulder injury. The same injury forced her to pull out of the China Open in September when she also announced she would end her season early and indicated she intended to return to the court in Australia in 2025.