It\u2019s been almost four months since Tunisian star Ons Jabeur shared a heartfelt message on social media announcing she was taking an indefinite break from professional tennis.<\/p>\n
She revealed she had been struggling physically and mentally for the past two years, and wasn\u2019t feeling happy on the tennis court. <\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d wrote the former world No 2. <\/p>\n
This week Jabeur is back at a tennis tournament, not as a competing player, but as an ambassador for the WTA Finals<\/a> in Riyadh. It is her first appearance on tour since she retired with breathing difficulties from her Wimbledon first round<\/a> in July, and the smile is already back on the face of Tunisia\u2019s Minister of Happiness. <\/p>\n \u201cMy break is going well. I’m discovering life a little bit outside tennis,\u201d Jabeur<\/a> told The National at the practice courts in Riyadh, where many of her peers were busy training for their matches. \u201cI’ve been busy with different things, the foundation, the academy. I’m trying to maybe launch new projects as well, so it’s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n The 31-year-old admits her first few weeks off were \u201ca little bit weird\u201d, as she suddenly found herself waking up to no specific schedule. \u201cWhen your body is used to like six hours, seven hours of training a day and then you just suddenly don’t do anything and mostly just eat and go to the beach and relax, I was like, \u2018What am I doing? What is this?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBut then after I got more creative, more active, doing more stuff and definitely my favourite part was spending a lot of time with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides spending quality time with her family, Jabeur took the opportunity to work on projects dear to her heart<\/a>, like launching her own foundation, and working on creating her new academy, which will officially open its doors in Dubai<\/a> later this month. <\/p>\n But before delving deeper into her current endeavours, it was important to discuss how Jabeur reached the point of needing to take a break from the sport that she loves. <\/p>\n Was it difficult finding \u201cthe joy of simply living\u201d while competing on the tennis tour?<\/p>\n \u201cFor me personally, yes,\u201d responds Jabeur. \u201cMy life since I was six years old was always focused on my training, my tournaments, tennis, and I didn’t feel like I, even though I did things outside tennis, it was always either tennis related or if I want to go on vacation, you always need to count the days because you don’t want to miss training. You want to go back on time.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn’t ever free from tennis. Trying to find something that makes me happy outside tennis was difficult and given the very tough two years that I had, it wasn’t easy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe happy place, the place where I find my joy suddenly became my sadness and basically became the place that gave me depression. And I was kind of scared, and I was thinking like, \u2018What if I never find joy on the tennis court ever again?\u2019 <\/p>\n \u201cBut I don’t think that will be the case. And I’m not retiring like most of the people think, I’ll be coming back someday.\u201d<\/p>\n Someday \u2013 Jabeur doesn\u2019t want to put a timeline on her return to competitive tennis, but she knows she will be back. She hasn\u2019t picked up a racquet since she announced her break \u2013 except for once during a kids\u2019 clinic \u2013 and says she misses it, but not enough to go and actually have a proper hit. <\/p>\n \u201cI just want to enjoy and when my mind and body tell me you’re ready, you want to come back, then I will come back,\u201d she declared. <\/p>\n Jabeur is a popular figure on the tennis circuit, which was evident from the scores of players, coaches, physios, tournament staff, WTA personnel, photographers and journalists, who all clamoured to greet her when she showed up at King Saud University Indoor Arena in Riyadh on Monday. <\/p>\n It is that same community that reached out to her when she announced her hiatus four months ago. \u201cI feel like there were two reactions [to my message]. The supportive one, which I honestly never expected that people would send so much love to me, from different players, to my sponsors, to my family, to people that know me and understood,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cAlways, when you skip something [a tournament] and decide to put yourself first, people would think you’re selfish and you don’t deserve that. But I got so much love and a lot of members also from the mental health [community] that they reached out to tell me that was a great decision and because they can see I was suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n The second type of reaction she got was from players who felt that her words describing her mental state truly resonated with them. <\/p>\n \u201cBasically, other players seeing themselves in what I was feeling,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd I felt like I was not only helping myself in this, but I was helping them as well. For me, someone that basically smiles all the time, to take a decision like that and feel broken and sad was kind of like, \u2018Oh, wow. We didn’t think Ons would feel that way\u2019. I was like, \u2018Yeah, basically I’m a human being\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI can feel that way, but maybe I’m the least person that would go in and feel that. So that was also a bonus that I had to just talk about it and help other people, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n Burnout is becoming more and more prevalent in professional sport, particularly in tennis, which has a grueling 11-month season with limited opportunities for rest. Jabeur doesn\u2019t have a clear answer when she\u2019s asked if burnout is inevitable<\/a> in tennis\u2019 current structure but she acknowledges the pressure to keep playing can be incredibly high from sponsors, entourage, and other sources. <\/p>\n She vows that when she returns to the tour, she will not compromise her own well-being for the sake of competing. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel I want to choose my tournaments. I want to make the schedule adapt to me, not me adapting to the schedule,\u201d she said. \u201cI will honestly try to speak up more and get the tennis community to treat us better as players, to treat us more as human beings than robots that play tennis, tennis, tennis all the time. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a very beautiful sport and we need to be smart about it. And I just want to be myself on the court. I don’t want to feel the stress. I felt so good for the last two, three months that I’m not stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n