Jabeur grateful for Princess of Wales hug after suffering 'most painful loss of my career'

Tunisian comforted by Princess Kate during trophy presentation after losing Wimbledon final to Marketa Vondrousova

Tunisia's Ons Jabeur speaks with British royal Kate, Princess of Wales, after losing to Czech Republic's Marketa Vondrousova in the Wimbledon women's singles final. AP Photo

Ons Jabeur said she was grateful to receive a hug from Kate, Princess of Wales, after suffering "the most painful loss of my career" in Saturday's Wimbledon women's final.

Tunisian Jabeur came up short in her latest quest to be crowned the first African or Arab women's Grand Slam champion, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic.

It was the second successive defeat in a Wimbledon final for 28-year-old Jabeur and her third loss in as many Grand Slam finals after she also lost the 2022 US Open championship decider.

"Hugs are always welcome," a tearful Jabeur said during her post-match press conference when asked about her interaction with the British royal during the trophy presentation at Centre Court.

Jabeur also acknowledged the comforting words of Kim Clijsters, the International Tennis Hall of Fame member who was defeated in her first four major finals before winning the next four.

Former world No 1 Clijsters lost the 2001 and 2003 French Open finals, the US Open title match in 2003 and the Australian Open final in 2004.

But the Belgian eventually ended her career as a four-time major champion, winning her first in New York in 2005.

"I love Kim so much. She's a great inspiration for me," said Jabeur who was consoled by Clijsters behind the scenes at Centre Court.

"The fact that she takes the time to give me advice and to really hug me, always be there for me, I think it's priceless.

"She was telling me all the time she lost four. That's why I know the information, otherwise would have been tough. But, yeah, that's the positive out of it. You cannot force things. It wasn't meant to be."

Her day started awkwardly: Jabeur showed up to the main stadium to warm up before the match wearing black clothes, which is against the All England Club’s rules requiring white attire on the competition courts.

So she had to interrupt that hitting session to go change.

“It was just an honest mistake,” she said.

Jabeur was seeded sixth at Wimbledon and beat four past Grand Slam champions along the way to Saturday, including Elena Rybakina, whom she lost to in the 2022 Wimbledon final.

But Jabeur said she was too tense against the unseeded Vondrousova, and the statistics seemed to bear that out.

Only 48 per cent of her first serves landed in and she was broken a half-dozen times. Her 17 unforced errors on that stroke alone were more than Vondrousova’s 13 total mistakes.

In all, Jabeur made 31 unforced errors.

No matter how much she tried to relax by taking deep breaths, no matter how much she tried to calm down with little chats to herself, it didn’t solve the problem.

“It’s painful,” she said, “because you feel so close to achieving something that you want, and actually [now go] back to square one.”

Jabeur has established herself as one of the best – and most popular – players in women’s tennis, reaching three of the past five major finals.

And her 28 wins on grass over the past three seasons were the most by anyone since Maria Sharapova picked up 30 victories from 2004-06, a stretch that included a Wimbledon title.

“Will definitely keep learning, keep being positive. I think that’s the thing that will keep me going,” Jabeur said. “Otherwise, if I’m going to be depressed about it, it’s not going to help much.”