As Wimbledon went from damp to soggy on Tuesday, the sunniest moments were to be enjoyed under the roof of No.1 Court.

The ebullient Ons Jabeur opened her Championships with a straight-sets win over Poland’s Magdalena Frech that contained enough fun, colourful and entertaining moments to keep the crowd happy.

Or, as she put it, she was playing some "cool shots".

With the rain smacking on the roof, somehow adding to the sense of drama, last summer’s runner-up kept on shaking the kaleidoscope.

Ripping groundstrokes all day isn’t Jabeur’s style or idea of a good time, even though she did that when she needed to.

From the very first game, the Tunisian was mixing it up and produced a range of drop-shots, lobs and slices that made life very uncomfortable for Frech, who couldn’t ever settle.

Best of all was the shot that Jabeur played to take the opening set, with an angled, cross-court forehand winner on the run that made the spectators gasp.

It might have been poncho weather outside but inside, in the dry, Jabeur was at ease and appeared to be having an interesting and fulfilling time during her 6-3, 6-3 victory.

"It always feels so great to come back here," said Jabeur. "My creativity reflects my character. I hate routine. I like to entertain the crowd with some cool shots."

Jabeur joked the other day that she had thought about ripping Elena Rybakina's picture down off the locker-room wall. Naturally, she never did anything as destructive as that.

As Jabeur demonstrated last summer, when she became the first Arab and African player to appear in a Grand Slam final, and as she reminded those watching, she's a creative at heart.

This was the ninth occasion in Frech's career that she had played a top-10 opponent and it ended just like the previous eight: in defeat.

When these two played on a hard court at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in March, Jabeur dropped the first set before coming back to win.

This time, it was over in straight sets. That could have been the only complaint from the crowd, that it didn't go on for long enough.

Jabeur now meets either Belgian world No.91 Ysaline Bonaventure or Chinese qualifier Zhuoxuan Bai.

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