Fifteen years before Tunisia's Ons Jabeur became the first Arab or African woman to win a top-flight tennis title, her adolescent sparring partner could see she was destined for glory even if he suffered a broken arm in the process.
Omar Laabidi remembers being repeatedly beaten by a 12-year-old Jabeur, who this month surged to victory at the Madrid Open at the age of 27 - the first WTA 1000 trophy of her career.
"We used to call her Roger Federer," he said.
Laabidi was talking at the tennis club where it all began, in the North African country's coastal town of Hammam Sousse.
"One time during a training match she hit a drop shot that I tried so hard to return that I broke my arm," he said.
Jabeur, who hopes to win a maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open which starts in Paris on Sunday, started playing on courts belonging to local hotels.
But she soon joined the Hammam Sousse Club, which now bears a huge portrait of its most famous graduate.
It was there that Nabil Mlika first trained a talented girl "determined to stand out" against both female and male peers.
But Mlika, who trained a young Jabeur for 10 years, said there was a moment where she almost quit the sport.
"She had great ball control, to the point where other coaches tried to attract her to handball," said the 55-year-old.
"Ons thought seriously about switching sport - but decided to stick to tennis."
She has gone on to rise to sixth place in the global Women's Tennis Association's women's singles rankings - the first Arab woman to reach the world top 10.
She also reached the final of the Italian Open in mid-May, eventually won by world No 1 Iga Swiatek.
Jabeur, known to many Tunisians as "the minister for happiness", was born in the southern coastal town of Ksar Hellal, one of four siblings.
She moved to the capital Tunis at the age of 12 to train at a prestigious state-backed sports club.
She has been married to her physical trainer and former fencer, Karim Kammoun, since 2015.
The right-hander is known for her stamina and for constantly changing the pace of the match.
"She hates playing at one pace. She's always trying to create a spectacle by switching up the game with shots that surprise her opponents, especially with drop shots," said Mlika.
"She's really the queen of the drop shot."
Jabeur made her first entry to the global scene in 2011, winning the girls' singles finals at the French Open at the age of 16.
Laabidi also moved to Tunis around the same time as the adolescent Jabeur and joined the same academy, where they continued sparring.
"She was always fun and quickly got to know strangers," he said.
"But she was always provocative and competitively debating on all subjects."
Those who knew her as a teenager say she has changed little despite her growing fame.
"She still runs around gathering up all the balls during training, which she's been doing since she started playing," said Mlika.
Unsurprisingly, as her fame has spiralled since 2018, subscriptions have skyrocketed at her home club from 320 to more than 700 students today.
For Yousra Koubaa, the mother of eight-year-old student Yasmine, Jabeur is "an example of hope, one we're always showing to our children."
Mlika says he uses photos of a young Jabeur to inspire his students today.
"She was a spark of enthusiasm, always moving and wanting to show that she was the best," he said.
"She always put me in a difficult position because I had to balance between taking the training up a level, or waiting for her peers to catch up with her level and her pace."
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Under-21 European Championship Final
Germany 1 Spain 0
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- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
F1 The Movie
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Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
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- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
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Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
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Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
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Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
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Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
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