Jabeur, acidic message for the organizers from Madrid: “They must respect women more”
Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur (29) criticized European tournament organizers on Monday for not “respecting” female players by giving preferential treatment to men in the combined events after she qualified for the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open.
Jabeur eliminated ninth seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals, alongside top seed Iga Swiatek, who eased past local favorite Sara Sorribes Tormo 6- 1, 6-0.
Jabeur, the 2022 Madrid champion, had a rather sour message for tournament organizers, telling reporters that she believes tennis still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality, despite leading the way in women’s sport.
“Tennis is definitely a sport I’m proud to play as a woman,” declared the world number nine, who is set to play either Coco Gauff or Madison Keys for a place in the semi-finals.
“But I feel like we have a long way to go, especially here in Madrid and Rome, in Europe in general. I feel like they need to respect women more and they need to respect the way we play.”
Sharing examples from her personal experiences at the events, Jabeur said women players did not have the same access to practice courts as men and noted how WTA matches are not televised as often as ATP matches.
“The way women are treated here and men are completely different. Maybe people outside don’t see it. I’m definitely one of the people who wants to speak out.” she added.
“Here in Spain, I would like to go to the hotel and turn on the TV and watch a women’s tennis match.
“I haven’t seen a single women’s tennis match. Obviously, I understand there are a lot of Spanish (male players) playing, but even one match? They don’t even show the Spanish players.
“It’s very frustrating for me to see that. How can you inspire young girls without showing any game about it?”
Meanwhile, Swiatek dropped the first set before sweeping the next 12 against her Spanish opponent to book a quarter-final meeting with Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.
“We’ve played a lot of tough matches against each other, so it won’t be easy.” said the Pole, world number one, about her future opponent.
“She is always a very intense player and knows how to play on clay.”
In the men’s competition, American Ben Shelton saw his unbeaten 5-0 start to the clay season come to an end as Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik prevailed 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 to qualify in the quarters, where the winner of Daniil Medvedev or Sebastian Korda awaits.
