"I try to take it off": Jabeur makes light of Rybakina's photo being in Wimbledon locker room after final loss in 2022

World number six Ons Jabeur has made light of Elena Rybakina’s Wimbledon title-winning picture in the locker room.

The 28-year-old lost to the current world number three in the final of the Grand Slam in London last year, despite winning the first set with a score of 3–6, 6–2, 6–2.

Talking about that encounter just before the start of Wimbledon 2023, which will last till 16 July, the Tunisian tennis star made light of the fact that she tried to remove the title-winning picture of the 24-year-old from the locker room.

"It's coming back right now,” she said as quoted by Reuters. “People mentioning I'm the finalist of last year. It's not great going in the locker room [at Wimbledon] and seeing Elena's picture, but I try to take it off.”

Jabeur, who became the first Arab and Muslim woman player to play in the women’s singles final at the Grand Slam last year, will be hoping to go one step further in the competition this time around after narrowly missing out in 2022.

The Ksar Hellal-born will begin her campaign this year against Poland’s Magdalena Frech on Tuesday. Jabeur is having an impressive 2023 where she is having a win percentage of 65.2 after ending up triumphing in 15 encounters out of a total of 23.

However, she is still short of performances compared to the last year where she ended up with a win percentage of 73.4 with 47 wins in 64 matches.