Tearful Ons Jabeur struggles with breathing problems during Australian Open win
By George Ramsay, CNN
(CNN) — Former world No. 2 Ons Jabeur battled through breathing difficulties to reach the third round of the Australian Open, defeating Colombia’s Camila Osorio 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday.
The Tunisia star was in tears as she took a medical timeout while leading 2-1 in the first set, later explaining how she was struggling physically even in the early stages of the match.
“It was very, very tough to breathe,” Jabeur told reporters. “When I was younger, I was diagnosed with asthma. Having to cough a lot didn’t help, I think it did provoke it even more. But it is very tough to play, I had to kind of not play long rallies.”
Jabeur has reached three grand slam finals in recent years, but injury problems kept her away from the court in the second half of last season, dropping to No. 39 in the world rankings as a result.
Against Osorio, Jabeur was forced to shorten rallies to compensate for her breathing trouble. She said that she didn’t notice much improvement when using an inhaler and will now undergo more tests to get to the bottom of the issue.
Osorio leveled the match at 5-5 in the first set, a few games after Jabeur’s medical timeout, but the 30-year-old broke back immediately and looked relieved to take a one-set lead when her opponent sent a forehand long.
A break of serve at 3-2 in the second set tightened Jabeur’s grip on the contest, and from there, she saw out the victory in an hour and 36 minutes.
“I apologized (to Osorio) at the end of the match because I didn’t want to behave like this on the court,” Jabeur said about how the breathing problems affected her game.
“I tried to manage through. Luckily, I was playing really good – that really kind of helped me and powered me. But to be honest with you, if I lost the first set it would have been very difficult to continue.”
Jabeur will now face American eighth seed Emma Navarro in the Australian Open third round on Saturday.
The-CNN-Wire
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