WTA Tennis: Ons Jabeur attacks Wimbledon organizers

When the organizers of Wimbledon decided to ban Russian and Belarusian players because of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian lands, it did not please Ons Jabeur as well. The world No. 10 spoke out on the issue while revealing that sports and politics should not mix.

“It’s a very tough decision, I understand what the Ukrainian people are going through and I am totally against war,” said world No.10 Jabeur.

“But what I’ve always been told for so many years is to never mix sports and politics,” Jabeur said.

“I’ve had some situations of my own, especially in the 2020 in BJK Cup when we were supposed to play Israel. I 100 percent feel very sorry for the Palestinian people and I feel sorry for the children that are dying every day for 74 years. So I don’t understand how it’s now okay to mix politics and sports,” said the 27-year-old.  

“What about all the other countries where people and children have been dying every day?

“For me, I don’t think we should mix politics and sports. It’s very sad what’s happening in the world and one thing I hate in this world is politics. It’s very dirty and we can never get the full picture of everything. So I hope this situation will be resolved very soon, I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“But I know that also Russians and Belarusians have their families back home, so I’m not sure how much they can talk about it.

“So it’s a very difficult situation for both, especially for Ukrainians. And honestly, I hope this war will be over soon so there will be no problems.”

She closed her remarks by urging more focus on the Palestinian cause: “But I also hope people could also look back to Palestinians because this subject really touches me as an Arab woman, it’s not fair and I hope we don’t mix politics and sports.”