HAMMAM SOUSSE, Tunisia: Ons Jabeur will make history on Thursday when she walks on to the Centre Court at Wimbledon as the first Arab woman to compete in a Grand Slam semifinal.
Fifteen years ago, Ons Jabeur’s young tennis sparring partner could see the Tunisian was destined for glory — even if he suffered a broken arm in the process.
Omar Laabidi remembers being repeatedly beaten by a 12-year-old Jabeur. “We used to call her ‘Roger Federer’,” Laabidi said.
He was talking at the tennis club where it all began, in the North African country’s coastal town of Hammam Sousse. “One time during a training match she hit a drop shot that I tried so hard to return that I broke my arm,” he said.
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