“Thank you, my animal friends” Ons Jabeur reveals her unusual preparation during her Madrid Open title run

“Thank you, my animal friends” Ons Jabeur reveals her unusual preparation during her Madrid Open title run

Ons Jabeur

Newly crowned World no. 7 Ons Jabeur picked up her biggest career title at the 2022 Madrid Open when she defeated Jessica Pegula to win her first-ever WTA-1000 title. It was Jabeur’s just second career title having lost 4 of the 5 finals she had played earlier. Ons had been putting consistent performances over the last couple of months and she was finally rewarded in Madrid.

While Ons had been preparing with her usual training drills throughout the tournament, there was one very particular thing that the Tunisian did that she believed helped her win the title. While she herself believes that it is a very silly thing, she was happy that it somehow got her distracted and kept her calm along with some confidence and luck from the trick.

“It did, these crazy two weeks. It started with me not adjusting very well to the conditions. Then a few keywords, like “digging deep.” That I had to do in the first matches and also other matches. “Revenge” is also something that I had to do in three matches. It’s crazy because I knew I’m playing really good and had the level to win any tournament. But sometimes a few things were missing, and it wasn’t there.

“But this tournament didn’t feel great at the beginning, and then it was really good. The final, I had to really get ready mentally for it. I had some help from a few animals. I was fooling around, playing with cards. And I was like, “I’m going to try to pick a card each day.” It’s animal cards and the animal had a message on it. I used it. When I picked up the card, I say, “OK, what should I do to win tomorrow?” One animal told me to dig deep,” said Ons speaking with WTA Insider after the win in Madrid.

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“I think it worked better here” Ons Jabeur on her ‘animal card’ drill

Ons Jabeur
Ons Jabeur

What many would think to be a very childish thing, Ons had actually been taking the advice from the ‘animal cards’ very seriously. She later talked about the help from her team as well who made sure she was match ready at all times and wished that Melanie, her sports psychologist, travelled more often with her.

“One of the animals actually told me that I’m playing a legend. It was Simona [Halep]. It was perfect. One animal told me to use my intelligence to be ready, and one animal told me to take action. So it was the perfect card each time I picked it up. I actually did this once, but it wasn’t with that with animals. It was in Chicago. I had this book, 21 lessons about tennis, and I flipped the book and then opened a random page and it said what tennis could teach you, and then I used that.

“I think it worked better here in Madrid. Thank you, my animal friends, for helping me. I like to get motivation from outside the courts and my team has been helpful a lot with me. Issam and Kareem and especially Melanie [Maillard, Jabeur’s sports psychologist] this week. It’s amazing to have her and hopefully she will be back with me for more tournaments,” added Ons further.

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