#ONStoppable: Tunisian trailblazer Ons Jabeur makes Wimbledon quarter-final

Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur has become the first-ever Arab woman to make the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

The 26-year-old made the tournament's last eight after coming back from a set down to beat Iga Swiatek on Monday.

She will play Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the tournament’s second seed, in the quarter-final.

Tunisia-born Jabeur was given an early taste of tennis by her mother. By the age of nine, she knew she wanted to play tennis professionally. Though she had to leave France for more advanced training when at 17, she now lives in the Tunisian capital. 

Her compatriots and tennis experts are relishing her victory, and her first name is inspiring a wealth of puns.

 

 

 

 

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Jabeur, Wimbledon's 21st seed, won her first WTA title last month in Birmingham and made the quarter-finals at last year’s Australian Open.

In what has already been an impressive course in this tournament, she beat former world number one and seven-time Wimbledon singles champion Venus Williams in the second round.

Nerves appeared to get to Jabeur during her third-round match, as she vomited in the corner of Centre Court while holding two match points. She said she was suffering from inflammation in her stomach.

Galvanising Tunisian football chants rang through the crowd during her match against Swiatek.

Jabeur has expressed pride in her background, and has said that she hopes Tunisian and Arab women will follow her lead.

"I always try to give that message to the young generation from Tunisia, from the Arab World, to believe in themselves, to believe that they could be here in my place one day," she said after her third-round win.