Thursday, April 6, 2023

Some words from the Minister

photo by Daniel Ward


Ons Jabeur, aka Credit One Charleston Open second seed, aka the Minister of Happiness (in Tunisia), came to press this afternoon after she won her round of 16 match against Caroline Dolehide. Jabeur talked about confidence and related issues. What she had to say deserves repeating, so here are some excerpts:

"I mean, definitely the experience from playing a lot of matches, and some matches were tougher than others, losing maybe very close, and you learn from it. I work a lot on my mental health with my mental coach. And, you know, confidence, it's a tricky thing, you know. Seems like maybe big players like Serena, Djokovic, Nadal, they do lose confidence, and people probably they know they see them how they play and say, 'oh, they're pretty confident all the time.' No, really. It's very tricky. And I think you should always still believe in yourself, give yourself time when it's going wrong, because again, tennis it could be like a few points, a few games.

"And for me through the years I'm learning to know myself better, to be able to just enjoy and give myself time. And very important to be surrounded by an amazing team because they always support me. And if I'm feeling down, they're going to bring me up. If they're feeling sometimes down, I'm like there to encourage them. So it's a teamwork, you know. And that's how I'm building my confidence through the years.

"…accepting also that players are playing good. That's part of it. I feel like also there is something that's very important, which is self-love. That's very connected to confidence, because as soon as you love yourself and give yourself a chance, then you're going to step up, and I think everything is really connected to each other. And as soon as you allow yourself to play good and  give yourself a chance, you become more confident, calm; courage is there. There's a lot of things that are really connected. And, yeah, with Melanie we work on a lot of those things, accepting that it’s—I'm injured, you know, and this is how it is. It is also very important sometimes to let go of things. Also it is very, very important."

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