Fran Jones ready to capitalise on French Open breakthrough with positive run at Wimbledon

After making her grand slam breakthrough at Roland Garros last month, she wept tears of joy and relief before crumpling into the arms of her parents, whose support has been unwavering since well before they decided that at age 10, their daughter should relocate to Barcelona to pursue her tennis dreams.

That breakthrough might only have been a maiden victory in a grand slam singles draw, coming at the seventh attempt, but the raw emotion showed just how much it meant.

The experienced Brazilian Beatrice Haddad Maia had been beaten in three sets and Jones had finally thrown the monkey off her back.

It should mean she heads to Wimbledon brimming with confidence, but as ever the nagging doubts are never far from the surface.

Her season has been punctuated with injuries, landmark wins and crushing defeats.

The wins have come against Emma Navarro in Auckland, one of her idols Venus Williams in Miami, and that high-stakes match with Haddad Maia at the French Open.

But the losses - like the one suffered at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko at Eastbourne last month - have been damaging to ranking points and to morale.

“It’s been a really tough year for me, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs but I’m actually not playing bad tennis at all right now,” said the 25-year-old in the wake of that Eastbourne defeat.

“I’ve not been exposed to that higher level [of competition] very often.

"The frustration of getting injured at my career high (last year) was that if you stay within your ranking bracket, you get exposed to this level consistently.

“It’s really good for me to see what the differences are, getting that exposure as I’m still so young in my tennis career.”

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post on the eve of the French Open, she spoke of targets and ambitions for the year ahead.

“I don’t set results-based targets,” she said at the time.

“But obviously it would be nice to get my first win in a grand slam main draw, that’s the first box to tick.”

With that box now ticked - even if she was knocked out in the second round at Roland Garros by Marie Bouzkova - Jones should at least be able to attack her fourth attempt at the first round of Wimbledon with a little more freedom and confidence in her ability.

Unseeded due to her ranking being down at 99 in the world, she has avoided any of the big guns in the first round, and if she is able to put a few results and a run together, maybe even to the weekend.

France’s fellow unseeded player Diane Parry is her first-round opponent.

Not that Jones is someone to look beyond that, but were she to do so, she would see a likely second-round match-up with Anna Kalinskaya, the 19th seed.

A third-round clash, potentially with Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, seeded 11, could be tricky but would also represent huge progress for Jones.

First thing’s first, though, and that opening round clash with Parry

Like Jones, the 23-year-old comes into the All England Club riding the high of a best-ever result at a grand slam at her home event at Roland Garros.

But unlike Jones, that was to the fourth round. Parry is a little more adept at navigating the early rounds of a major having previously been to the third round of the three other grand slams, including twice at Wimbledon, in 2022 and last year.

At Jones’s level of the tennis world, one victory in a grand slam has the potential to make or break an entire season – even more important than winning a regular ATP tournament.

Her win over Haddad Maia in Paris was worth roughly £75,000.

Victory in the first round at Wimbledon would net £80,000.

To a proud Yorkshirewoman and Englishwoman, it would mean the world - and a fair few ranking points back in the right direction for a player forever taking a step forward, before being forced to take a step backwards.

“When I started the year I was closer to the top 50 than I was the 100-mark but I had points to defend when I was injured, so the objective now has just got to be to complete the year. I can’t focus on the ranking this year,” she said.

“Being at Wimbledon is always special for a Brit.

“I’m grateful that I’ve managed to get this far but with the ambition to go further.”