Two-time Wimbledon finalist breaks down in tears and leaves the court after 26 minutes

Ons Jabeur broke down in tears just 26 minutes into her clash with Viktoriya Tomova and had to leave the court. Jabeur, who reached the final here in 2022 and 2023, saved nine game points at 2-2 but lost the 10-minute game to trail 3-2.

The Tunisian returned to her courtside seat and burried her head in her towel as she struggled to fight back the tears. A medical timeout was called, where medics checked her blood pressure and vitals before taking her off court.

After a 14-minute break, Jabeur returned to continue competing in the first set in front of the packed-out Court 14, which is one of the smaller venues at SW19. However, she eventually called it a day early on in the second set.

Jabeur was trailing 7-6, 2-0 when she retired from the match. It is unclear what caused Jabeur's breakdown, but it could be the extremely humid conditions that have engulfed the All England Club. The temprature will hit a high of 34C on Monday - a record for the opening day.

Jabeur is hoping to bury her demons at the All England Club, after losing to Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova in back-to-back finals.

"It's a good and bad memory here. So I'm trying to really enjoy as much as I can," she told The National.

"Try to find that freedom when I'm playing and the joy when I'm playing. It's been a tough year, I would say. But yeah, it is what it is. I'm trying to repeat some positive words to myself that ... I don't want to carry the disappointment that happened before and then hopefully I can move on with it."

She added: "It's always, I think, mentally. Because if you're mentally ready and want to do everything, I think it's easier to overcome any physical struggle or anything. But yeah, being on and off didn't help much.

"The ability of believing in myself that I can come back like before, it's been a bit low and that really affected me.

"So yeah, it's just about a lot of believing in myself more than ever because coming back at a certain level, it's never easy. So I hope I can overcome that."

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