Ons Jabeur has complained about being scheduled in the early morning slot for her quarterfinals against Coco Gauff at the 2024 French Open. Gauff defeated Jabeur 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on the back of four break points and the Tunisian's 38 unforced errors.
On her way out, Jabeur expressed displeasure at playing in the morning session on Tuesday, June 4. In her post-match presser, she stated that she preferred to play Gauff later in the day as she believed reaching the quarterfinal was an achievement worthy of playing in front of a bigger audience live and digitally.
"I would've loved a quarterfinal at night, not 11 am. For me it doesn’t make sense. Maybe this is the only Grand Slam and maybe the Australian Open, they play quarterfinals at 11 am, which… I don’t find it… I don’t know the broadcasts, I don’t know the TV. But you achieve quarterfinals, you have its like, no, 'You play at 11'," Jabeur told the reporters.
This is the second time the Tunisian, aka 'The Minister of Happiness', has denounced the French Open's decision not to hold women's matches during audience-friendly hours. Her frequent complaints irked tennis fans on X (formerly Twitter).
"The "Minister Of Happiness" sure seems to complain a lot. Is there anything that she's [Ons Jabeur's] ever happy about," a fan wrote.
"She is not the minister of happiness. Doesn't look happy on court. And doesn't look happy out," wrote another.
Here are a few more reactions from X:
"So they don't want to play late and they don't want to play early. So I guess there should be 2 main stadium matches from maybe 1 to 5. would that be ok," a fan wrote.
"They don’t want early starts, they don’t like late finishes, they don’t like linger tournaments; do they know there are plenty of other matches to be played? Scheduling is often terrible, but give me break," a fan remarked.
"Poor thing. Cry me a river," a fan commented.
"For christ sake, she has a problem with everything! If she hates tennis, that much then retire! There's a lot of matches to get through so 11 is a early time," a fan stated.
"Start earlier and put nice matches on both sides" - Ons Jabeur advises French Open
In the same presser at Roland Garros on Tuesday, Ons Jabeur also protested the extremely late finish to the matches this year while advocating for the women's draw.
"There were a lot of good women’s matches, obviously not four hours, but who said it's healthy to play past 1 am, who said the stadium was full at 1 am or 2 am, and I don't know who's watching the matches at the time," Ons Jabeur said.
The World No. 9 continued:
"Again, I would suggest to start earlier and put nice matches on both sides. It's not healthy also for players to play past 11 or midnight."
The quarterfinal finish was Ons Jabeur's joint-best campaign at the French Open. She reached the same stage in the women's singles draw in the previous edition. She's next set to kickstart her grass season with the Rothesay Open in Nottingham.