After a history-making run in Paris, Ons Jabeur is a woman in demand.

Having become the first Tunisian - and first Arab - woman to reach the third round of a Grand Slam, the 22-year-old is garnering a heightened level of interest on the grounds at Roehampton.

So after she launched her Wimbledon Qualifying campaign with a 6-3, 7-6(1) win over Sofya Zhuk on Wednesday, the No.3 seed was promptly whisked into an on-court television interview.

Aleksandra Krunic, the No.1 seed, and her opponent Lina Gjorcheska were momentarily kept waiting in the wings until Krunic had cheekily had enough. “Get off the court, Ons,” she quipped with a grin as she tried to put her bags down.

All in jest, of course. Jabeur gave the Serbian a bear hug as the pair chatted, before gathering her bags for her next interview.

It all changed for the Paris-based Jabeur with her defeat of Dominika Cibulkova, then the world No.6, at Roland Garros last month.

“It was a good win against Cibulkova. I like to play big players who are higher ranked, like in the top 10,” Jabeur said. “That tournament gave me a lot of confidence.”

It’s been a whirlwind four weeks since. “I didn’t go home yet [to Tunisia],” she said. “I’ve had a lot of messages, a lot of people are very proud and congratulating me but I’m trying to forget a little bit about Roland Garros. If I think about it too much though I’m not going to do anything.

“It was nice. It was a lot of emotions there so now I’m just going to focus on Wimbledon and maybe I can slide a little bit more here - the rain helps.”

Having resumed play at 2-2 in the second set on a different court from Tuesday, Jabeur was facing a potential third set at set point on her own serve at 3-5. Piling on the pressure, she reeled off three straight games before letting three match points slip on Zhuk’s serve.

“It’s weird because I play much better when I’m under pressure,” Jabeur said. “It was going a little bit backwards at certain times and she was attacking me, so I had to change the roles and had to get back in the attacking position.”

It worked a treat. She opened the tie-break with back-to-back drop-shot winners and went on to lead 6-0 as swirling drizzle began to fall. Jabeur wanted this done in two and she closed it out on her fifth match point to set up a second-round clash with Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum.

“I was not sure if I was going to finish at 5-3,” she said. “It was a little bit difficult changing court. The balls seemed heavier for me but that’s the conditions and I had to deal with it. Thank God I woke up at 5-3 and I didn’t let the match go three sets.”

As it stands, Wimbledon is the only one of the four Grand Slams in which the Tunisian has not played in the main draw. Three times she has fallen in Qualifying at Roehampton, her best run being a 7-5 third-set final-round defeat by Tamira Paszek in 2014.

“That was a tough, tough loss,” she said. “Hopefully this year it’s going to be my year and I’m going to qualify and go to Wimbledon.”
As it turned out, the momentary delay did little to distract Krunic. The No.1 seed got her Qualifying campaign off on the right foot with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Gjorcheska. Next she faces Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova.

China’s Lin Zhu, the No.4 seed, beat Dutchwoman Quirine Lemoine 6-3, 7-5 to set up a second-round meeting with Czech Republic's Marie Bouzkova, while Russia’s Anna Blinkova, the No.5 seed, dealt Switzerland’s Conny Perrin a double bagel and will face Turkey’s Ipek Soylu.

Two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist Kaia Kanepi, of Estonia, made a triumphant return to competition with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Lesley Kerkhove of the Netherlands. The former world No.15 will take on Australia’s Arina Rodionova next.

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