Ons Jabeur swats aside Bernarda Pera to move into French Open quarter-finals
Jabeur's season has steadily gathered steam in Paris after the Tunisian world number seven had minor knee surgery earlier in the year and skipped the Madrid Open due to a calf problem following her run to the Charleston crown.
She breezed to a 4-1 lead in the opening set even as many Court Philippe Chatrier ticket-holders were making their way past the turnstiles and closed it out in 35 minutes with her fifth break of serve.
Pera beat Jabeur in their last meeting on the hardcourts of Guangzhou in 2019 but the left-hander struggled to cope with her tricky opponent's clay prowess and did not help her own cause with errors in her maiden last 16 appearance in a Grand Slam.
Jabeur tightened her grip on the contest by blending power, precision and guile in the next set to close out the victory in just over an hour.
The Tunisian, who is eyeing a first Grand Slam title after falling short in the Wimbledon and US Open finals last year, will take on Beatriz Haddad Maia in the last eight.
Jabeur feels the love in bid for first major title
Jabeur is hoping the romantic atmosphere of Paris will help her quest for a maiden Grand Slam title after reaching the French Open quarter-finals for the first time.
Jabeur has become the first African player to reach the quarter-finals at each of the four majors in the Open Era.
"Paris is always romantic, day or night. Winning here will definitely be an amazing memory for me. For now, I just want to take it one match at a time," Jabeur told reporters.
"I will have a very difficult quarter-final. I was just taking it one match at a time, trying to make it to the second week. Now I'm going to push more for the next few matches."
Jabeur, who meets 14th seed Haddad Maia for a place in the semis, has endured a stop-start season in which she had minor knee surgery before winning the Charleston title and skipping Madrid with a calf problem.
"I have learned a lot how to accept things, either good or bad," Jabeur said. "For me, being injured was part of my path, how the season would have started here this year.
"I worked a lot on my mental health and worked a lot on how to manage all this because I believe there is a lot of injuries are connected to our emotional part. I'm trying to manage that.
"The season is still long, so hopefully no more injuries and I can continue in a great path."
