Jabeur

Ons Jabeur is the first Arab woman and first African woman to make a Grand Slam final.

“I talk a lot about it’s nice to get out the feelings, all the stress,” she said. (The French Open, you know.) Then Thursday she got to a decisive set in a semifinal and roared to 5-0 with only one game going to deuce. “She’s number two in the world,” Maria said, “and she’s still the same person that she was many years ago.” Then the friendship and sportswomanship carried on because Jabeur got going about Maria: “If I didn’t see her two kids, I would say she never had the kids. “Yeah, I mean, it’s nice of them to call me that,” she said Thursday. “It’s really unbelievable. “It’s very important.” She spoke Thursday of childhood heroes Kim Clijsters, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Andy Roddick and of recent adviser Billie Jean King. I’m 34 years old with two kids and playing my first time semifinal in Wimbledon … Even with family, you can have a career and you can keep going.” “Yeah, I hope that I can send this message out,” Maria said, “that I have two kids and I’m on this stage. Jabeur joined that pantheon with a clever game that boasts the full toolbox of shots (all on display Thursday) and with an essence that made her something else: beloved. By age 9, Jabeur had moved an hour away with her family to Sousse, also on the coast, and the girl was telling people she aimed to win the French Open someday. “Tunisia is connected to the Arab world, is connected to the African continent. I want to see more players from my country, from the Middle East, from Africa. I think we didn’t believe enough at certain point that we can do it.