Ons Jabeur out to ‘catch up’ world number one Iga Swiatek

On Sunday, the Tunisian Jabeur picked up a third career singles title, lifting the Berlin Open trophy after beating Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic.

Jabeur cruised to the opening set 6-3, as Bencic injured her left ankle in the final game of the first set.

The Swiss number eight seed attempted to battle on but was eventually forced to retire with Jabeur leading 2-1 in the second set.

The victory meant that Jabeur has now jumped from sixth in the world to third in the WTA rankings.

Reflecting on her second title in as many months after her victory in the Spanish capital, Jabeur said that she can take lot of confidence from her triumph in Germany into Wimbledon next week.

Ons Jabeur told BBC Sport Africa in an exclusive interview, “At the beginning of the season I said I want more titles – and I hope there are more titles to come.

“I’m pretty happy and that gives me a lot of confidence to be ready for Wimbledon for sure.”

The 27-year-old then revealed her ambitions for the rest of the season, admitting that she will “try to catch up” current world number one Iga Swiatek.

“I have been trying to find solutions to improve every time and try to push myself. And to see that the numbers are following, it’s really important for me.

“Now I move on to the next goal, to be number two in the world and stop Iga maybe one day. She’s a little bit far off, but I’ll try to catch up.”

However, Jabeur will have some way to go to catch Swiatek, as the Pole is on a 35-match winning streak and has almost double the number of rankings points.