Jabeur “not so far” from best level heading into second week of Roland-Garros

Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur came out the other side of a challenging match on day eight of Roland-Garros, defeating Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

With the win, Jabeur makes the round of 16 at Roland-Garros for the third time in four years. However, despite her regular presence in the round of 16, Jabeur has yet to make a quarter-final in Paris, falling at this stage in 2021 and 2020.

With three wins under her belt this week, could the No 7 seed be building towards her first Roland-Garros quarter-final in a few days’ time?

“I was able to win with poor tennis” – Jabeur does it tough against Danilovic

No one will deny that Jabeur is not playing at the same level she has in the past, when she made deep runs at Wimbledon and the US Open.

However, an encouraging sign for the Tunisian is her ability to grit it out and win despite not being at her best.

“I tried my best at the beginning, but it was a difficult day, for sure, for me. I’m glad that I did search very deep today and won the match.”

Jabeur explained that she has had some challenges that only women will truly understand heading into her third-round encounter, which made the match particularly grueling to navigate.

“Unfortunately I had few days where it’s very tough. You manage the training, for sure, with that. Honestly, this thing you can never 100% manage, unfortunately, but I’m learning to know my body better. I’m learning to have, you know, the strength to compete for two weeks.”

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The No 7 seed explained that despite her scrappy performance against Danilovic, she believes her level is close to being what it was in the past.

“There are things that are going well. Mentally I’m present. The physical sensations will come back.

“Right now I’m winning matches without being at 100%, so I’m learning.”

Jabeur confident she can make first quarter-final at Roland-Garros 2023

Heading into the second week of Roland-Garros 2023, Ons Jabeur is relaxed about the pressure of potentially making the quarter-finals for the first time in Paris.

So relaxed, that she forgot what week it is.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot that I’m in the second week,” exclaimed Jabeur when asked to elaborate on how her first week has unfolded.

“I think I finish it with a good transformation,” Jabeur continued. “For me today it’s about a great transformation, great transformation of energy, of attitude on the court, of so many things.”

The Tunisian is optimistic that she’ll be able to continue improving her game enough to win the upcoming match against American Bernarda Pera.

“Hopefully the next step will be even better, and I can approach the second week stronger and ready to play better against lefties.”

Do so, and she’ll be one step closer to a potentially mouth-watering semi-final against Iga Swiatek.