Ons Jabeur’s hiatus from tennis remains indefinite as the former world No 2 and her husband, Karim Kammoun, will soon welcome their “tiniest teammate”.
Three-time Grand Slam runner-up Jabeur decided to take a break from the sport she loves after her early exit from Wimbledon in June as she admitted: “I haven’t felt happy on court for some time now”.
The first six months of the 2025 season had been a tough one for the Tunisian as she started the year at No 42, but failed to put together a consistent run of form and by the end of the grass-court campaign as had slipped out of the top 70.
Something had to give and Jabeur announced her decision to “take a step back” on social media, writing: “For the past two years I’ve been pushing myself so hard, fighting through injuries and facing many other challenges.
“But, deep down, I haven’t felt happy on court for some time now.
“Tennis is such a beautiful sport. But right now I feel it’s time to take a step back and finally put myself first: to breathe, to heal, and to rediscover the joy of simply living.”
It was generally accepted that the tennis world would see Jabeur again at the start of the 2026 season, but that will not be the case as she shared the wonderful news about her pregnancy this week.
“Took a little break to reset and recharge… Turns out, we’ve been planning the cutest comeback ever ” she wrote.
“The court will have to wait a little longer, because soon… we’ll be welcoming our tiniest teammate Baby boy joining the team in April ”
Having children was always a dream for Jabeur and Kammoun and, after losing the 2023 Wimbledon final against Marketa Vondrousova, she admitted she was devastated not just in terms of missing out on the trophy, but it ended her hopes of “having a baby right away”.
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In the This is Me documentary that was released in 2024, she said: “People think I have this pressure because I want to do it for other people, which is not true.
“There was a personal thing going on there. I win that [final] I could have a baby right away. And that dream faded.
“I was haunted by fear. After all I’m just a human being, what can I do more?
“It was the toughest loss of my career because emotionally it destroyed me, not only winning Wimbledon, but the idea of having a baby just vanished with the trophy of Wimbledon. So I think that’s what killed me and Karim, we were crying like babies.”
In February this year, she said on the Nothing Major podcast: “I love kids so much, and definitely I want to be a mother one day.
“And you know, everything happens for a reason. Everything happens in their own time. It wasn’t meant to be for me to be a mother before. And I’m sure it will happen very soon.”
Nine months later, Jabeur is well on her way to “rediscovering the joy of simply living”.
The happy couple is now preparing for the big arrival in April, but will we see the Tunisian back on a tennis court?
“Everyone is different. It depends how you recover. I don’t know the experience of giving birth, how it will be. But for me, I will see,” she told WTATennis.com.
“If mentally I am ready to come back, anything can happen.”