London: No one could blame Tunisian Ons Jabeur for wanting to get off Wimbledon’s Centre Court in a hurry on Friday.
It might be the most famous tennis theatre in the world and a place where anyone who picks up a racket dreams of playing.
But when fans are huddling up in woolly jumpers and pulling on winter jackets in the height of what is supposed to be the British summer, Jabeur made sure she did not hang around longer than necessary as she dispatched former junior number one Diane Parry 6-2, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.
The world number two had shown little mercy during her progress to the third round, spending less than two hours on court. Had she not been broken by 77th-ranked Parry when serving for the first set at 5-0 up, she would have made it into the last 16 by spending less than three hours on court during the first five days of the championships.
That break not only earned 19-year-old Parry, one of four Frenchwomen to reach the third round, a rousing ovation from the Centre Court crowd but boosted her confidence as she raised her game to hit some sublime one-handed backhand winners.
Although the teenager could not rescue the first set, which Jabeur sealed with an ace, she stayed toe-to-toe with the third seed in the second set until 3-3.
But if she had any aspirations of knocking out the world’s second-best player at a second successive slam, having eliminated then world number two Barbora Krejcikova at Roland Garros, Jabeur swiftly moved in to deliver the knockout punch.
The 27-year-old North African broke Parry to love in the seventh game and moments later she was celebrating her passage into the last 16 -- having been kept on court for 68 minutes.
“It was a great match for me. It was good to finish the match in two sets and hopefully I can continue playing this way,” said Jabeur as she targets improving on her 2021 quarter-final appearance at the All England Club.
She will next meet either 2018 Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber or Belgian 24th seed Elise Mertens.
Results
Men’s Singles
Third Round
Tim van Rijthoven, Netherlands, def. Nikoloz Basilashvili (22), Georgia, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
Frances Tiafoe (23), United States, def. Alexander Bublik, Kazakhstan, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Women’s Singles
Third Round
Jelena Ostapenko (12), Latvia, def. Irina-Camelia Begu, Romania, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Jule Niemeier, Germany, def. Lesia Tsurenko, Ukraine, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Ons Jabeur (3), Tunisia, def. Diane Parry, France, 6-2, 6-3.
Heather Watson, Britain, def. Kaja Juvan, Slovenia, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
