"It's really sad for the sport" - Jabeur on Federer retiring

Roger Federer will retire from tennis soon and Ons Jabeur thinks it's really sad for the sport to lose one of its icons.

Like many, Jabeur grew up closely watching Federer and how he plays and took inspiration from his elegant style of tennis. Nobody made it look easier than Federer and Jabeur certainly has some of that grace when she plays.

She spoke to Eurosport about the news admitting that it makes her sad:

“It’s really sad for the sport. I didn’t wish this day to happen. It’s also harsh because it’s Serena and Roger in the same year, it’s kind of tough. He’s an unbelievable player.”

Adding further, Jabeur said:

“I’ve met Roger a couple of times; he has such a great sense of humour. I remember when he congratulated me on the win against Iga in Wimbledon last year. I was stretching with Karim. Karim and [my coach] Issam [Jellali] wanted to take pictures with him. So Karim stopped stretching me and went to take a photo with him. So Roger was like, ‘oh, I’m sorry’, joking because he took my team away from me, and I was like, ‘you can take them forever, that’s okay’. It was a nice moment."

She also admitted that she took his slice:

“Honestly, he inspired me a lot, especially, I love his slice; I tried to get inspired by him slicing all the time. Hopefully, we can still see him around the tennis world.”