Malek Jaziri (Tunisia)

Career high: No 75 on July 16, 2001

Selima Sfar was the only Arab woman tennis player to ever break into the top 100, up until

Ons Jabeur broke her record earlier this year. Sfar was a

Tunisian trailblazer, paving the way for future generations by turning professional in 1999. She won 11 singles tournaments, 20 doubles tournaments, and played at two Summer Olympics before setting down her racquet in 2011.

Karim Alami (Morocco) Career high: No 25 on February 21, 2000 Karim Alami, who turned professional in 1990, competed on behalf of Morocco at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and was defeated in the first round by his Swiss rival Marc Rosset. Alami reached the quarter finals eight years later at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He retired in 2002.

Younes Al Aynaoui (Morocco) Career high: No 14 on March 11, 2003 Younes Al Aynaoui’s most memorable career moment happened in 2003: an epic 83-game match against America’s Andy Roddick at the Australian Open. The showdown went on for a whopping five hours; at the time, it included the longest fifth set in Grand Slam history. Though Roddick won in the end, Al Aynaoui’s stamina was especially notable due to the fact that he was 31, while Roddick was 20. Al Aynaoui is widely recognised as one of the best Arab players of all time, and received a gold medal to recognise his sporting achievements from Moroccan ruler King Mohammad VI.

Career high: No 42 on January 7, 2019 Malek Jaziri, 35, is still going strong on the tennis court. In fact, it was just this year that he reached his career high of 42. Jaziri last year achieved his first win against a Top 10 player, when he defeated then World No 4 Grigor Dimitrov at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and reached the semi-finals of the tournament.