(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) Ons Jabeur, deeply moved, expressed her intention to allocate a portion of her prize money from the WTA Finals to support Palestinians. Her emotional announcement came after she secured her first victory of the week at the season-ending championships in Cancun, where she avenged her Wimbledon final loss to Marketa Vondrousova. With tears in her eyes, Jabeur addressed the audience, saying, "While I am very pleased with this victory, my recent happiness has been somewhat elusive." Notably, she stands as the sole Arabic woman to have reached a Grand Slam final.
"The situation in the world doesn't make me happy," Jabeur added as she broke down in tears, before composing herself enough to talk about the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"It's very tough seeing children, babies dying every day," she said.
"It's heartbreaking, so I've decided to donate part of my prize money to help the Palestinians.
"I cannot be happy with just this win, with what is happening. I'm sorry guys, it's supposed to be about tennis, but it's very frustrating looking at videos every day.
"I'm sorry -- it's not a political message, it's just humanity. I want peace in this world and that's it."
Later, in her post-match press conference, Ons Jabeur said it had been a challenge to focus on tennis.
"I try to stay off social media as much as I can, but it's very tough," Jabeur said.
"You go through videos, photos, they're horrible, horrible photos every day. It doesn't help me sleep or recover very well and the worst thing is I feel hopeless.
"Maybe donating some money would help a little bit with what they have been going through. But I know money doesn't mean anything right now to them. So I wish freedom for everybody and really peace for everyone."
Jabeur's pathway to the semi-finals in Mexico hinges on her victory in the final round-robin match this Friday against the world number two, Iga Swiatek.
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