Arab Tennis Watch: Safwat, Jabeur and Jaziri are all Paris-bound

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  • Ons Jabeur. (Photo via DDF Tennis)

    As the clay season nears its climax at the French Open next week, a couple of the Arab players are already in Paris, as they prepare for their qualifying campaigns.

    Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who won the Roland Garros junior title in 2011, has touched down in the French capital, where she will be seeded in the qualifying draw, thanks to her 113 ranking.

    Jabeur started her clay season by reaching the third round of the WTA event in Charleston, as a lucky loser, before making the semi-finals of the $80k event at Indian Harbour Beach.

    She’s a had a few tough tournaments since, though, losing in the second round at the Dothan ITF, dropping her qualifying opener in the WTA event in Rabat, and falling in the last-16 of the $100k in Trnava last week (but not before pulling off this impressive four-ace game).

    Egypt’s Mohamed Safwat is getting ready to make his second appearance in Roland Garros qualifying (he lost his the only match he’s ever played there, back in 2014). The 26-year-old made a strong start to the season on hard courts but things have gotten a bit trickier for him recently on the clay. He did stretch Bernard Tomic to three sets in the Istanbul first round last month though.

    Safwat faces a tricky Roland Garros qualifying opener against talented Russian-born Kazakh Alexander Bublik. The 19-year-old Bublik has already made a name for himself as a comedian on the tour (watch the video below).

    Tunisian Malek Jaziri will feature in the main draw at the French Open, where he made the second round in 2012 (lost to Granollers in five) and 2016 (lost to Berdych in four).

    After cracking the top-50 for the first time last February, Jaziri has now dropped to No70 having won just two of his last eight matches.

    One player who is not going to be in Paris but has been rising in the rankings is Karim-Mohamed Maamoun. The Egyptian has made the step up from the Futures circuit and is competing in his fifth consecutive Challenger this week in Mestre, where he opens against sixth-seeded Turk Cem Ilkel.

    After claiming five Futures titles this season, Maamoun has finally moved up the tennis order and has already claimed one match win on the Challenger tour.

    Meanwhile, Egypt’s Youssef Hossam is up to No558 in the rankings, while Sandra Samir is at 450.

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