Ons Jabeur wants ‘more respect’ for women’s tennis players

Ons Jabeur on Monday called out organisers of European tournaments for failing to “respect” women’s tennis players by giving preferential treatment to the men at combined events.

Jabeur, who
moved into the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open
, dismissed Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 6-4 to reach the last-eight along with top seed Iga Swiatek who eased past home favourite Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-1, 6-0.

Jabeur, the 2022 Madrid champion, took a swipe at tournament organisers, telling reporters that she believes tennis still has a way to go in achieving gender equality, despite it being the leader in women’s sport.

“Definitely tennis is a sport that I’m proud to play in as a woman,” said the World No. 9 Jabeur, who next plays Madison Keys for a place in the semi-finals.

“But I feel like we have a long way, especially here in Madrid and in Rome, in Europe in general. I feel like they need to respect women more and they need to respect how we are playing.”

Sharing examples from her personal experiences, Jabeur said women players were not given the same access to practice courts as the men, and noted how the women’s matches were not shown on TV as frequently as the men.

“The way they treat women here and men, they’re completely different. Maybe people from outside, they don’t see it. I’m definitely one of the people that I want to speak up,” she added.

“Here in Spain, I would love to go to the hotel and open the TV and see a woman’s tennis match.

“I haven’t seen once one tennis match of a woman. Obviously, I understand there are a lot of Spanish (male players) playing, but asking for one match? Even the female Spanish (players) they are not even showing.

“For me it’s really frustrating to see that. How can you inspire young girls without showing any match in that?”