Ons Jabeur is known back home in Tunisia as the Minister of Happiness. She’s a pirouetting, skipping, sliding cartoon on the court. She plays like a video game character if someone dropped the controller and all the trick‑shot combinations were mashed at once.
Elena Rybakina is shy. She’s nice, she’s polite. She unexpectedly has the serve of someone dropping a bowling ball from the roof of a building. In the final last year, when she bested a devastated Jabeur in three sets to win her maiden grand slam title, she celebrated akin to someone who had just claimed £10 from a scratchcard. In a way it was refreshing, now that players will lie starfish on their back at winning low‑tier Challenger events.
