Professional Tennis

African distinctions at the start of 2020

27 February 2020

By Hichem Riani

Women:

Ons Jabeur - Tunisia, 25 years old

The Tunisian Tennis-woman who started the year 2020 in the 78th place in the WTA Ranking achieved exceptional performances at the start of this year. Ons reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open by eliminating on her way, Johanna Konta - GBR (12th WTA), Caroline Garcia - FRA (42nd WTA), Caroline Wozniacki - DEN (Ex. 1st WTA) and Quiang Wang - CHN (27th WTA) before being defeated by the future winner of the Tournament, Sofia Kenin - USA (14th WTA).

Ons Jabeur - Tunisia

At the Dubai Tournament which took place from 15th to 22nd February 2020, the Tunisian player and after having eliminated in the 1st round the American Alison Riske (15th WTA),  she almost achieved the feat against the World N ° 2, Romania's Simona Halep after missing a match point in the 3rd Set to bow to the future winner of the tournament 1/6 6/2 7/6 (7). Ons Jabeur is continuing her performances, she has already reached the quarterfinals of the Doha Tournament, endowed with 3,240,000 US $ by successively beating, in the 1st round Alison Riske - USA (13th WTA), in the 2nd round Jennifer Brady - USA (35th WTA) and in the 3rd round Karolina Pliskova - CZE (3rd WTA). In the ¼ finals Ons Jabeur will face the 8th world player Petra Kvitova - CZE. We wish all the success to the Tunisian player who currently occupies the 42nd place in the WTA Ranking. With these magnificent performances Ons Jabeur will surely be among the Top 30 in the World Ranking in the coming weeks.

Men:

Lloyd Harris - South Africa, 22 years old

South African tennis player Lloyd Harris reached his best ATP ranking on 20th January 2020, 72nd at ATP following his performances recorded at the Adelaide ATP 250 Tournament in Australia where he reached the Final. In this tournament, Lloyd, coming from the qualifications notably eliminated in his path, Cristian Garin - Chile (36th  ATP), Laslo Djere -

Lloyd Harris –  South Africa 

Serbia (40th ATP) and Pablo Carreno Busta - Spain (30th ATP). In the final, he could not  resist the excellent Andrey Rublev - Russia (18th ATP).

Bravo to Lloyd Harris.

Mohamed Safwat - Egypt, 29 years old.

The Egyptian tennis player who won his qualification ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after winning in August 2020 the single title of the 2019 African Games of Rabat was able to win his first Challenger 80 Tournament in Burnie - Australia, on 2nd February 2020. Safwat then had three successive victories in the Australian Open qualifications before losing in 4 sets, in the 1st round of this Grand Slam tournament against the French Grégoire  Barrere (84th ATP). Congratulations to Mohamed Safwat who now occupies the 130th place in the ATP ranking.

Mohamed Safwat – Egypt