When Ons Jabeur’s flight from Marseille to Manchester was cancelled, delaying her arrival to the $100k grass tournament there, the Tunisian had a sneaky suspicion within.

“It’s a funny story, every time either I miss a flight or a bad thing happens before the tournament, I win the tournament,” Jabeur told Sport360 on the sidelines of her participation at Wimbledon.

“So this time, my flight was cancelled so I had to sleep the whole night at the airport and I didn’t get much sleep and it was a disaster. I was in Marseille, so we had to go to Nice and there were many problems.

“I turned to my coach [Bertrand Perret] and told him ‘I think there’s something that’s going to happen this tournament’.”

Jabeur, who had struggled in the first half of the season and dropped out of the top-100 in February, went to Manchester and won the title. Without dropping a set, no less. And with the trophy, came a special bonus: A wildcard into the Wimbledon main draw.

“I love grass, I love playing on grass. With my game, and my slices, my drop shot, really did help me play well in Manchester. I knew a little bit about the wildcard, the history says that if a girl wins one of the [ITF grass] tournaments she would get a wildcard so I had that in mind. So it was motivation, at the same time a little bit of stress but then I had to go for it, I was doing a great job and in the final I had to go for the wildcard,” said the 23-year-old Tunisian.

Jabeur went on to reach the quarter-finals in Ilkley the following week, also on grass, then came to Wimbledon and became the first Arab woman since 2005 to win a round at the All England Club, defeating Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic – for a third time in four weeks – 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Monday, to set up a second round against Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova.

“The good point today is that I wasn’t playing my best tennis but then I won,” Jabeur said after defeating Golubic and posting her first-ever main draw win at Wimbledon.

“Mentally I’m here. I’m really happy with this win. I proved that I deserved the wildcard and I really want to go as far as I can. Playing Siniakova next is kind of difficult for me, it’s going to be a big challenge because I never won against her. She’s not the type of game that I like but I have to be prepared for this one. It’s going to be a very big test for me.”

Jabeur knows she is constantly making history for Tunisia and the Arab and African world but she is more focused on going as far as possible this tournament than anything else.

“For me it’s not just about winning one match now, it’s about continuing and improving my game. I feel like I’m more mature and I’m playing better. I really wish that I can do something good this Wimbledon,” she confessed.