Francesca Jones set herself a goal to reach the top 100 by the end of 2025, or retire (Image: Getty) This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Francesca Jones has made it into the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament on her own ranking for the first time in her career – just 12 months after she considered retiring altogether. The British No.3 set herself an all-or-nothing goal to crack the top 100 or hang up her racket.
Now sitting at a career-high ranking of No.69, Jones said she was “very serious” about her decision to quit tennis. Jones, 25, said: “I’m a no-bulls*** person. So for me, it was a case of I’m going to go all out for one more year.
“There was stuff at the end of ’24 that I thought I maybe hadn’t tried and wanted to tweak. I think a couple of internal changes I had to make with myself, as well. It was just a process. Last year was a process. But I didn’t expect last year to go the way that it did.
“As I said, my tennis level has always been there, my mentality is there, but there are other things amongst it that were challenging for me over the previous couple of seasons. Yeah, I was clear. I said to my whole team, my parents were aware. Okay, if I would have been 101, then I wasn’t going to quit. But it was kind of a feeling that I had.
“I had played back-to-back tournaments. It was smaller objectives that if I completed those, would have led to me being top 100. So it wasn’t necessarily seeing a top 100 number. It was just making sure those things I felt I needed to tick box in order to achieve that that I did.”
After cracking the top 100, Jones rewarded herself with an end-of-season trip to Peru – a lifelong dream. She added: “I wanted to always go and see Machu Picchu. So I loved history at school. So I kind of said to myself, if I made the top 100, I would go to Peru. I did sort of like an 11-day itinerary around Peru.
“That was a kind of a really nice end to the season for me, it was something I always wanted to do. I did a lot of couple-of-hours hikes. But I don’t think my team would have been very happy about me saying, yeah, I’m going to go do the five-day hike to Machu Picchu, because it’s something like 10 to 12 hours on average walking a day, and that wasn’t what I needed.
Francesca Jones got the biggest win of her career over Emma Navarro in Auckland (Image: Getty)
“But I certainly am not someone that can sit on the beach in the Maldives for two weeks either. So I tried to find a middle ground.”
The Brit comes to Melbourne off the back of earning her biggest career win in Auckland over top-20 star Emma Navarro. “It was great to start the year with that. Every player wants to start the year with a win. Kind of puts you in good stead for the season,” she said.
“I think it’s just a mental barrier to break. It’s like a relief. For me especially being at that level, beating someone at that level, it was, you know, really an accomplishment feeling I would say.”
But Jones also retired from the quarter-finals there with a leg injury and explained: “We’ve done everything we can to be fit for what looks like Monday for me. Obviously frustrating. But, yeah, should be able to play on it, hopefully.”
The world No.69 now faces qualifier Linda Klimovicova in her opening match in Melbourne. “I know she’s a big hitter. Obviously, for qualifying players, having been one myself, you know, winning matches on these court,s I think they’re always dangerous,” she said.
