Tunisian Anas Jaber became the first Arab and African player to rise to the position of the Women’s Tennis Association “WTA”, after she continued her historic rise on Monday.
Jaber, who rose to second place in the world rankings on Monday, reached the second round as well, with a quick victory over Sweden’s Miriam Björklund 6-1, 6-3 on Monday. And it took the Tunisian only 53 minutes to overcome her opponent and will meet in the next round with Poland’s Kartarzina Kaia, who defeated Canadian Rebecca Marino 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Jaber reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year, her best result in the major tournaments, in addition to reaching the same role in the Australian Open in 2020.
After the victory, Anas Jaber said: “Today I achieved the highest rating in my career, and losing only four games in today’s match means that I made a great start in the tournament.” Fallen,” she concluded, “Now I want to go further than the quarter-finals.”
Jaber participated in the English Eastbourne tournament last week in the doubles matches alongside veteran American Serena Williams, and they won two matches before Jaber suffered a slight knee injury before entering the semi-finals.
2nd place in the world
After advancing last Monday to third place, she became the second African player to rise to second place, along with South African Amanda Koetzer (November 1997), but the Tunisian broke up this achievement partnership to become the second ranked player in the world, in light of the impressive results it provides. this season.
The 27-year-old Tunisian, who last year became the first Arab woman to enter the top ten list, strengthened the best ranking in her career, by ascending an additional position at the expense of Estonian Annette Kontaveit, who became third, raising her score to 4340 points.
This season, Jaber won the Madrid tournament title and runner-up to the Polish world number one Iga Schwentek in Rome, both within the 1000 tournaments, before lifting the Berlin Cup on grass courts a week ago, achieving the third title in her professional career, before the start of Wimbledon.
While Šviontik is still in the lead outside the flock, more than four thousand points away from its closest rival, after winning six titles so far this year, Jaber’s progress and Kontaveit’s decline was the only change in the list of top 13.
In men, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to fifth place at the expense of Norway’s Casper Ruud, after winning the Mallorca Championship on grass courts last weekend.
This was the only change in the top 18 of the rankings, led by Russian Daniil Medvedev, who is absent from Wimbledon due to the ban on players from his country and their Belarus neighbors from participating due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The second German, Alexander Zverev, is also absent after undergoing ankle ligament surgery, following his fall in the Roland Garros semi-finals.
- Ranking of the top ten players:
1- Russia’s Daniil Medvedev 7955 points
2- German Alexander Zverev 7030
3- Novak Djokovic 6770
4- Rafael Nadal of Spain 6525
5- Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 5150 (+1)
6- Norway’s Casper Rod 5050 (-1)
7. Spaniard Carlos Alcaras 4890
8- Russian Andrey Rublev 3870
9- Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 3760
10. Polish Hubert Hurkacz 3735
- Ranking of the top ten players:
1- Polish IGA Schwentek 8576 points
2- Tunisian Anas Jaber 4340 (+1)
3- Estonian Annette Kontaveit 4306 (-1)
4- Spain’s Paula Padusa 4245
5- Greek Maria Sakkari 4205
6- Belarusian Arina Sabalenka 4046
7- Czech Karolina Pliskova 3777
8- American Daniel Collins 3255
9- American Jessica Pegula 3156
10- Spanish Garbine Mugurosa 3015