Ons Jabeur seemed to be comfortable in her first match at the 2023 Roland Garros, beating Lucia Bronzetti in straight sets.
Coming back from an injury is never easy, especially if it's around the time that was successful in the past. Alexander Zverev could talk about it, as he's trying to regain his form and has to defend last year's semifinal appearance at the Roland Garros.
But the highest-ranked African player on the WTA Tour, Jabeur, doesn't have a lot of points to defend even though she's also coming back from an injury. Recently, the Tunisian was forced to withdraw from the Madrid Open where she was a defending champion, but now, she's ready to realise the dream of her entire continent in the French capital.
She certainly did everything necessary to do that in the first round of the tournament, in which she took on Lucia Bronzetti from Italy, ranked 65th on the WTA Tour. The two never met before, but the Italian was coming off a triumph at the Morocco Open in Rabat and wanted to extend her winning streak on the Parisian clay.
But the seventh seed proved to be too strong for her and it showed from the beginning. Although Bronzetti was able to win the first game, Jabeur followed with five consecutive games, setting up the stage for a comfortable first-set win.
Yet, the Italian briefly fought back, recovering one of the two breaks. But to re-break once more was too much for Bronzetti, so the Tunisian won the first set 6-4 after a hold to love.
The 24-year-old Italian missed also the start of the second set as a two-time Grand Slam finalist from 2022 won the first five games of the set. Although Bronzetti was able to re-break also in this set, Jabeur won it again, winning the match 6-4, 6-1 to book a second-round spot at the 2023 Roland Garros.
The seventh-seeded Tunisian will now face one of the home players in Paris. It will be either Oceane Dodin or wild card Selena Janicijevic.
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