Jabeur reveals the opponent she didn't like to face: "I hated playing against Sabalenka".
Ons Jabeur is trying to get back to her best. Now ranked 34th in the world after reaching three Grand Slam finals, the 30-year-old Tunisian and former world No.2 will face Jelena Ostapenko in the first round of the Abu Dhabi WTA 500.
While waiting to get back into the swing of things after her third-round loss to Emma Navarro at the Australian Open, Jabeur was the guest of the Nothing Major Podcast and discussed the top three players in the world in the WTA rankings:
"I used to hate playing against Aryna (Sabalenka), because of the way she hits the ball. I could hardly anticipate what she was going to do, and I used to get frustrated with the speed of her ball.
Some people might say to me: 'Oh, but you've got a beautiful touch on the ball'. But for me, speed is more important than touch.
If I can't find the key to counter her power, it's very hard for me to use it. One player I didn't particularly like playing against was Aryna.
Intimidating players? There are quite a few. I think Iga (Swiatek) is very solid. She doesn't give you any free points, which makes it tricky to play against her.
As for Coco (Gauff), she's great. She plays fantastic tennis. That's why he's got a lot of really solid players against whom you have to be 100%, or at least do everything to try and get as close to them as possible, to have a chance of beating them in a match."