Ons Jabeur Welcomes ‘A Tiny Miracle’ With a Heartfelt Post

“I want to give myself the time to see how my body will react. I don’t want to rush into it. But I definitely would want to go back on tour and compete for a couple more years. I always knew that tennis is important, but not the most important thing in life,” she had told Vogue Arabia in March*.*

There are a number of players who have gone on to achieve a monumental level of success after giving birth. This includes the likes of Elina Svitolina, Belinda Bencic, Caroline Wozniacki, and Serena Williams. Notably, the American won the 2017 Australian Open while she was pregnant with her first daughter, Olympia.

Moving on, Jabeur will be aiming to get back to her previous form as she prepares to make her much-awaited return. The three-time Grand Slam runner-up had a year-end rank of No. 6 in 2023. While the Tunisian was expected to remain one of the dominant forces in women’s tennis for the next many years, her form had significantly dropped in 2024.

Jabeur then slid to No. 42 in the rankings by the end of the year before going through another dismal season in 2025. This led to her rank dropping further down to No. 75. However, it was her long absence that led to her suffering the biggest drop of her career in 2026.

The veteran has already lost 270 places since the start of the year and is currently ranked No. 345. She can even move out of the top 400 by the time she makes her return to the court.

It is safe to say that Jabeur’s time off the court has been anything but easy. It was in November of last year that she had opened up about suffering from depression due to the extremely demanding schedule on tour.

Ons Jabeur’s emotional confession regarding her physical and mental health

“Honestly, I’m done letting the schedule dictate what I should do and what I should not do. I really suffered a lot, mentally more than physically. But my body was screaming for help for a long time. I haven’t listened. I think I had a depression without even knowing that, and people call me The Minister of Happiness. I wasn’t Minister of Happiness anymore. I was very sad for a long time. I’m putting myself first. For me, that’s a huge step,” she had told Sky Sports Tennis.

TENNIS : Open de Rome – 05/05/2025 May 5th, 2025 – Ons Jabeur from Tunisia during a practice session in Rome with Iga Swiatek from Poland – PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxFRAxBEL Copyright: xTristanxLapierrex

Jabeur had also called out the WTA for making a jam-packed tour schedule, adding that it has resulted in many more players taking breaks.

“The schedule is killing everyone. I’m not the first one to stop playing. I feel like I saw [Beatriz] Haddad Maia stopping, [Elina] Svitolina as well. It’s tough. I hope the tennis community will listen to us and lower some of the tournaments.”

Elaborating on her point, the 31-year-old had opined that the WTA should refrain from scheduling two Masters events back-t0-back. This includes the Indian Wells and the Miami Open which are held one after another generally in March. Further, the Masters tournaments in Madrid and Rome are also held back-to-back.

“I think it’s more like tournaments piling up, for example, Doha, Dubai. It’s my favorite and I want to play there, but two 1000 tournaments in a row? It’s too much. And I feel like they want to add more. Also, the two weeks, 1000 tournaments. I don’t know whose idea it was. It’s such a bad idea. None of the players like it,” she further said.

After going through such a tough time, it is not a surprise that Jabeur wants to take her time before making a comeback to the court. It remains to be seen when the Tunisian will decide to get back into action.