Reem's Dubai diary: Jabeur's lucky charm, Pliskovas' twin confusion

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  • Kristyna Pliskova in action in Dubai on Sunday.

    It’s no secret that the people players choose to surround themselves with often play the biggest role in their success.

    It could be a coach, a friend, a family member, an agent, a psychologist, or all or none of the above that make the difference for a player at any given week and it’s quite interesting to hear from the pros about the main influences in their day-to-day life.

    For Ons Jabeur, it is her fellow Tunisian and former world No75 Selima Sfar that has been a positive presence in her life recently.

    The two are good friends and sometimes hit together when they are both in Doha, where Jabeur’s husband resides and where Sfar spends a significant amount of time due to her beIN Sports commentating duties.

    Sfar is the only Arab woman to ever crack the top-100 and Jabeur is looking to follow suit.

    The 22-year-old North African joked the other day that Sfar has been telling her that she’s her good luck charm considering they practiced together for a week before Jabeur made the quarter-finals in Taipei earlier this month, and they did so again in the build-up to Dubai, where she has qualified and now reached the second round.

    “She told me ‘You see, every time you practice with me you do well’. And I’m like ‘okay, Selima’. She keeps telling me she’s ‘mabrouka’ (good luck charm). Mabrouka is a name, I told her ‘no, your name is Selima’,” laughed Jabeur.

    “She’s sweet and she’s helped me a lot, with her energy, how she tries to be positive with everything. She’s from the same country as me and it’s amazing to have her by my side.”

    Twin troubles

    For someone like Karolina Pliskova, having her twin sister Kristyna on tour has been a big advantage. She spoke to reporters on Sunday about their relationship.

    Karolina is ranked No3 in the world is the more successful one of the pair, but Kristyna is actually on the rise and is up to No58 in the world.

    On Saturday in Doha after Karolina won the title, a reporter asked her how she felt about being unseeded and facing a tough opener in Dubai against Roberta Vinci. Karolina quickly pointed out that it was her sister who is facing the Italian, not her.

    “Sometimes it’s tough because people are still confusing us both, they still don’t know which one is which, after so many years I’m still surprised but unfortunately that’s the case,” said Karolina with a smile.

    “I think on one hand it’s definitely an advantage to have someone like this on the tour. Since now two or three years we haven’t met much at tournaments but she’s moving up the rankings and we’re going to have more and more tournaments in common. Maybe in the future we can even start to play doubles again.

    “On the other hand always for one of us it’s not an advantage to have someone – let’s say like it is for her now – when someone is winning more than the other, that’s tough.”

    Does she have any tips on how people can differentiate between them?

    “We have different tattoos. On court it’s easy, she’s lefty and I’m right-handed, but still people can’t tell us apart on court. I don’t know what more we can do to help you,” the Czech added laughing. “We have different hair. Someone who is with us more often can tell us apart.”

    And do they share twin telepathy?

    “A little bit but I don’t feel right now what she’s doing. But most of the time we say the same things in one moment, exactly the same words or sentences. We have the same talking, and same thinking. There’s always something between twins,” she explains.

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