Ons Jabeur issued a pretty lengthy explanation for her decision to skip the Paris Olympics as she highlighted that surface change concerns are a real thing and claimed that playing in Paris could have put the rest of her season in jeopardy considering her knee issues.
After Emma Raducanu and Aryna Sabalenka decided to pull out of the Olympics due to concerns they had about quickly going from grass to clay, Jabeur announced the same news just a couple of hours after the Belarusian tennis star.
But now, all three – Jabeur, Sabalenka and Raducanu – are competing at a hard-court WTA 500 tournament in Washington.
Speaking to the press in Washington, three-time Grand Slam finalist Jabeur started by mentioning that she has been bothered by a knee issue for quite some time and it’s something that can be managed but not fully healed. And after making that clear, the 29-year-old Tunisian pretty much suggested that going from grass to clay and then from clay to hard would have been a suicide for her troublesome knee.
“Well, I didn’t play the Olympics because of the surface changes. Since I have, like, knee problems, honestly it would be very tough decision to take. It would probably make me not be able to play for the rest of the season. I’m managing my knee so…
