Estonian tennis star Anett Kontaveit spoke very highly of Ons Jabeur after beating out the Tunisian for the final spot at the WTA Finals. Earlier this week Kontaveit saw off Simona Halep 6-2 6-3 in the Cluj-Napoca final to win her fourth title of the season and beat out Jabeur for the final spot at the WTA Finals.
Kontaveit and Jabeur have a great relationship and the Estonian was a bit said for her friend. “Ons is such a great person. We’ve been friends for years, we’re similar in age, and I’ve known her since juniors. She’s such a wonderful girl. I wish it wasn’t her, Honestly, I don’t even know what to say. I didn’t think any of this was realistic. I genuinely thought Ons was going to the Finals. I would have been really happy for her because she deserves it. She’s had a really great year and I’ve lost to her a couple of times. She’s a really great player and an even better person. I guess that’s tennis for you.”
The week before winning Cluj-Napoca, Kontaveit won Moscow. Jabeur was in a great position to clinch a WTA Finals berth but she was forced to retire her Moscow opener and she also withdraw from last week’s WTA event in Courmayeur.
Even Kontaveit didn’t actually believe she could make the WTA Finals. “Honestly, I have no idea. I don’t even know how to answer that,” Kontaveit admitted. “I didn’t think anything like this was ever possible. Even after winning Moscow, I came here and thought, “This is such a longshot. What am I even doing? I’m exhausted. This is so hard.” “But I just kept going each match. It’s so tough to comment about it because I hadn’t thought about it because I didn’t think it was realistic.”
