Ines Ibbou's follow-up post on Dominic Thiem, changes in tennis and getting support

Algerian tennis player Ines Ibbou has written a second blog after the overwhelming response that her open letter to World No. 3 Dominic Thiem received. Ibbou's open letter to Thiem attracted a lot of attention from the media and from several tennis champions, including Billie Jean King, Venus Williams and Nick Kyrgios.

While continuing to write about the challenges for an aspiring tennis player and calling for changes to be made in the tennis system, Ibbou also thanked people for the support she received and spoke about Thiem in her updated post, the full text of which can be read here. 

Ines Ibbou on changes required in tennis and Dominic Thiem's response

In her blog, Ibbou writesI would like to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for the unbelievable support. These past few days have been crazy, never in a million years would I have imagined something like this happening.

I ask myself, how can a young woman like me, achieving what I’ve achieved in juniors, playing Roland Garros (twice), US Open, or Wimbledon, doesn’t have a real possibility to prove herself just because I supposedly wasn’t born in the right place for tennis? Extremely unfair. Why bother putting tennis on TV? Don’t you make mountains of money from it? Why do you let a young girl like me admire get inspired by the greatest like, Billie Jean King, Venus & Serena, Selima Sfar who opened the path for Arabs and North-African players? Ons Jabber, and many more incredible women. 

I love this game….deeply. I would love to see more Pro tournaments in countries like mine, better access to this sport. Wouldn’t it be better for clubs? Academies? Coaches? Educators? Wouldn’t it increase the global audience of tennis? Increase profit? Jobs? Prize-money? It’s a win win!

In spite of everything, I respect Dominic Thiem’s career and talent. He had a chance and took it. I respect his sacrifice, getting to where he is is extremely difficult. I’ve already said that I don’t blame him for anything, and he’s in no way responsible for our situation. Nobody’s perfect, we all make mistakes. Myself included, I could be very good at it sometimes. However, I blame the fact that rules are not made for all. I blame the fact that nobody anticipated this kind of situation where many tennis players are in right now. I blame the general lack of solidarity in this difficult time. I blame the conditions that forced me to write this open letter. Replying by saying you didn’t watched my whole video when you’re complaining that people didn’t read you’re whole interview is just not satisfiying enough as an answer. You really expect more from a champion… especially in terms of responsibility… But i don’t want to insist on him. He doesn’t care, and he’s still not the problem.

I think it’s time to have a real discussion about tennis. It’s time to improve the game. Let’s work on it all together! These next days i will think about some proposal… You’re support is a blessing and gives me purpose. You are the reason why I stay positive.

Ines Ibbou is currently ranked No. 620 in the world and has won two singles titles and two doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. After World No. 3 Dominic Thiem had said that he did not want to help all the lower ranked players during the current shutdown, Ibbou had written an open letter to him in which she asked him to respect her sacrifices. After her letter, Ibbou also received support from the Algerian President who said his government would support her.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2AgUAg1