Tearful Ons Jabeur: ‘I pushed myself beyond my limits’ in US Open final

As you can imagine, losing a second Grand Slam final is tough!

After the last point against Iga Swiatek, I just felt like I wanted to cry … a lot. I felt disappointed. I was trying to put my heart out there, but it wasn’t meant to be. It’s tough, you know? I was thinking like: “I just lost another final, again.” I was very, very upset about it. I was trying not to cry on court. Just a lot of emotions and I couldn’t wait to get out of there and hug my team.

I don’t know why but I was more nervous before this US Open final than I was before the Wimbledon one. Maybe because it’s New York, the energy here is different a little bit. I was nervous about the possibility of losing another final; suffering another disappointment scared me a little bit. But I faced that fear.

I know that I lost yet another final but I don’t regret much because I felt like I gave it my all. It’s just that the ball fell more for her because she played really amazing at certain times and it was very tough for me to counter her shots and trying to be ready for them. I gave it my all. I pulled off shots I never expected to pull off, pushed myself beyond my limits. I had to make some unbelievable winners to get back in the match.

Iga had an incredible start to the final, but usually, from experience, when someone plays really well, it’s very tough for them to maintain that level for two whole sets. So I was waiting for that moment, and I was also provoking it with some crazy shots that I had to really commit to and had to dig deep to land them.

Even statistics-wise, she had some crazy numbers, like 90 percent first serves in, 100 percent returns in. It’s insane, I’m not even sure if she put up numbers like that in other matches. But I started to