French Open 2024: Ons Jabeur vs Leylah Fernandez; Preview, Head-to-Head, and Prediction

The ‘Minister of Happiness‘ survived a scare in the second round of the Roland Garros. She will be now looking forward to bringing out her A-game in the next round in Paris. The eighth-seeded Ons Jabeur is all set to take on Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the third round of the 2024 French Open on Friday (May 31). Both the players have already won two matches in this tournament, but who’ll take the first step forward towards her third?

Jabeur defeated America’s Sachia Vickery in the first round comfortably by 6-3,6-2. In the next match, she secured a hard-fought victory against Colombia’s Camila Osorio by a 6-3,1-6,6-3 margin. With this victory, she’s now 15-4 in the second round at major tournaments, including 5-0 at Roland Garros. On the other hand, Leylah Fernandez defeated France’s Jessika Ponchet by two sets in her first match and in the second she beat China’s Wang Xiyu by 6-3,6-4. It’ll be interesting to see if the Canadian can really come up with a formidable challenge against the world number 9.

Ons Jabeur vs Leylah Fernandez: Preview

Jabeur has been in decent form this year. She has reached two QFs in her previous tournaments this year. But in her last match, the Tunisian tennis star was seen struggling a bit in the second set. If we look at her numbers from that match, Ons Jabeur has failed to hit even a single ace in the entire match but committed four double faults. Her first serve win percentage was 46%, but on the second serve, it crept to 53%. Jabeur converted six of her nine breakpoints against the Colombian.

Ons Jabeur would surely be looking forward to improving her numbers a bit in her next match. She has hit almost 63 aces so far this season and committed 20 double faults. Jabeur has won 63.9% of her service games and 33.3% of her return games this year. If she plays her natural game, then beating the Canadian will not be a tough ask. But will Leylah Fernandez allow her a free run?

Fernandez’s best result this year came at the Qatar Open, where she reached the QF. However, here in Paris, she has started off pretty well. Her numbers from her previous match against Xiyu were quite decent. Leylah Fernandez hit one ace and committed two double faults in that match. However, her first-serve win percentage was 67% and her second-serve win percentage was even better (74%). She converted three of her five breakpoints in that match.

Her stats from this season tell us she needs a lot to improve to reach heights in this season. Leylah Fernandez has hit only 30 aces so far but committed 90 double faults. She has won 66.4% of her service games and 31.8% of her return games this season. But who has the edge in the H2H scoreline?

Jabeur vs Fernandez: Head-to-Head

Both of them have met each other three times on the Tour so far. Currently, the Tunisian leads the H2H scoreline with a clear-cut 3-0 margin over the Canadian. Ons Jabeur defeated Leylah Fernandez in their first meeting at the Cincinnati Masters in 2020. In that match, she took three sets to overcome the Canadian hurdle. Even in the next, Jabeur defeated Fernandez by 6-4,3-6,7-6 in the R16 of the 2021 Birmingham Classic. However, their latest meeting was at the Madrid Open this year. Guess what? It yet again took three sets to decide the winner.

Ons Jabeur defeated Leylah Fernandez by 7-5,2-6,6-4 in the Spanish capital. She hit four aces and two double faults in the entire match, whereas the Canadian hit just a single ace and committed six double faults. Fernandez won 67% of her first serve and 44% of her second serve in that match. Jabeur won 72% of her first serve but could only manage to win 36% of her second serve. The left-handed Canadian tennis star converted five out of her thirteen breakpoints in that match. On the other hand, the right-handed Tunisian managed to convert five out of his seventeen breakpoints.

Prediction: Jabeur to win in yet another three-set thriller

Both the players are having a winning run in this tournament so far, but Ons Jabeur has more experience playing at the bigger stages of the tournament. In fact, she was the junior champion at the French Open in 2011. Jabeur currently has a win-loss record of 6-9 whereas, Leylah Fernandez has recorded 9-11. Roland Garros is the favorite tournament of Ons Jabeur and her best result here came in 2023 when she reached the QF. Even the Canadian has previously reached the QF in Paris in 2022.

If we look at their playing style, Ons Jabeur comes up with a lot of variety in her shots and she loves to mix them up to confuse her opponents. She has a good forehand and her drop shots are very much deceptive. Leylah Fernandez, on the other hand, is fiercely competitive and is more of a baseliner. She can switch from defense to offense very quickly and her forehand is one of her biggest weapons. But she has struggled a bit with her serves in the recent past. However, if we look at their H2H score and the difference in their ranking, Ons Jabeur (9) will be slightly ahead of Leylah Fernandez (34).