Francesca Jones only has eight fingers and seven toes.
Nevertheless, she has now played her first in a Grand Slam main field.
Francesca Jones only has eight fingers and seven toes
A doctor predicts: "You will never become a tennis professional"
In qualifying, Jones beat the former world number 28
Francesca
Jones
spent much of her childhood in hospitals.
At one point a doctor told her that she would never be able to play tennis professionally.
But the British woman could not be dissuaded from her dream, not even by her congenital handicap, which does not seem particularly beneficial for a tennis career.
Because of a genetic defect, Jones only has eight fingers (three fingers and one thumb each) and seven toes.
On Tuesday, the 20-year-old was rewarded for her tenacity.
With a smooth 6-0, 6-1 win over the Chinese Lu
Jiajing
(31), she qualified for the first time for the main
draw of
a Grand Slam tournament.
On her way to the Australian Open (from February 8th) she also got rid of Romanian Monica
Niculescu
(33, number 144) - after all, three-time tournament winner on the WTA tour and former number 28 in the world.
Not bad for a girl who used to be barely able to hold the bat and who didn't always know how to balance herself perfectly because of her only three toes on her right foot.
Due to her development, she had only started strength training two years ago.
Jones: "I want to inspire other people"
"I want to inspire other people with my path and my achievements," says Jones in the Guardian.
"It would be great if I could motivate young children and people who are in a similar situation to me." Jones himself went to the tennis academy of the two Spanish ex-professionals Sergio
Casal
(58) and Emilio
Sánchez Vicario
( 55) in Barcelona.
Far from England and far from her family.
"They sacrificed everything for me, they are great parents," says Jones, who no longer shows the handicap with their powerful topspin forehand or the two-handed backhand.
With all these softer factors, however, it also has one main goal: it wants to win.
From 350th to 241st place
In the past weeks and months she has succeeded.
Before the pandemic break, she had never defeated a top 200 player, Niculescu was her fourth victim since August.
The successes also had an impact on the ranking list.
At the beginning of the year, Francesca Jones was still in position 350. She has currently moved up to position 241.
Ascending trend.