World No. 9 Ons Jabeur ripped the Madrid Open following her round-of-16 win over Jelena Ostapenko as the Tunisian believes Madrid is highly favoring men in everything and “not respecting women” as much as they should.
Jabeur, who won her first WTA 1000 title in Madrid two years ago, ousted Ostapenko 6-4 6-0 to reach the quarterfinal at Caja Magica and achieve her best result of the season. For Jabeur, this is the first time this season that she has won three consecutive matches.
After beating Ostapenko and showing signs of rediscovering her form in Madrid, Jabeur was asked what it was about Madrid that suited her so well. Three-time Grand Slam finalist Jabeur then went on a big rant.
Ons Jabeur © Getty Images Sport – Elsa
Jabeur calls out Madrid: They annoy me by favoring men
“The conditions and the fact that they annoy me here by favoring men,” Jabeur answered.
“I feel like definitely tennis is one of the sports that I’m proud to play in as a woman. 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. Some things we feel it, and yeah, in maybe like a lot of things in practices, the way they treat women here and men, they’re completely different. Maybe people from outside, they don’t see it.
“Yeah, I’m definitely one of the people that I want to speak up. I really enjoy watching woman’s tennis, enjoy watching woman’s sports in general. I think we deserve better. It’s not like we are not doing any effort and we are asking for more what we deserve, for sure.”
Ons Jabeur © Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
In the interview, Jabeur also called out people who are not even willing to give a chance to women’s tennis. When making that clear, Jabeur also asked how can women’s tennis or women’s sports reach greater heights when people have so many doubts and TV networks are not willing to give them as many opportunities as they do to men.
In the Madrid quarterfinal, Jabeur plays against either Coco Gauff or Madison Keys.
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