She's known as Tunisia's 'Minister for Happiness' but, unsurprisingly, Ons Jabeur is actually more emotionally complex than that. She's not a smiley emoji in Wimbledon whites.

Yes, she's often a joyous presence on a grass court, or any other surface, and her run to last year's Wimbledon final was one of the feel-good stories of the summer.

But if Jabeur realises her dreams this Fortnight and wins the Venus Rosewater Dish for the first time, she would have been fuelled not just by pure joy and happiness but also by something starkly different: emotional pain. The pain of getting so close last year and then losing in three sets to Elena Rybakina.

When Jabeur and her husband watched the highlights of that defeat in an episode of Netflix's Break Point docuseries, they both cried; it was such tough viewing that they are unlikely to sit through that footage for a second time.

The feeling she had after losing, it never really goes away, she has said, it's just always there.

"I watched Netflix. It was about Wimbledon, the episode. It was very emotional for us. It's tough to look back at the final," Jabeur said on Saturday ahead of her first round match against Poland's Magdalena Frech.

"I've watched a couple of other videos, happy ones, the Tunisian crowd, everybody supporting. It was great. But now we are in 2023, and hoping I can create better memories."

Last summer, Jabeur had a picture of the Wimbledon trophy as a background photo on her phone, to focus her mind on the prize.

Some other images she's not so keen on. The first Arab and African player to appear in a Grand Slam final, Jabeur joked she would be removing a photograph of Rybakina from the wall of the All England Club.

"It's not great going in the locker room and seeing Elena's picture, but I try to take it off," she said, laughing.

"It's very nice having the attention. You did a Grand Slam final. It's not a bad thing. It's something that's great. Maybe sometimes I didn't see it that way because obviously I wanted to go for the title. But again, a final is a great final, it's a Grand Slam final.

"I just want to use that experience, use the pressure that I felt last year, to maybe do better this year. But again, my first goal here is to really enjoy playing on grass, maybe [create great] memories like last year or the year before."

Jabeur is a significantly more experienced player than she was on arriving at Wimbledon last summer.

She's now played in two Grand Slam finals, as she was also runner-up to Iga Swiatek at last year's US Open.

"I think it's good to have that confidence to be in the Wimbledon final, experience all the great things that I had last year," she said.

"But I believe our side of the draw [the bottom half] is kind of tough as everybody is there. But you take it one step at a time and see what's going to happen. But that's how Grand Slams work: you need a good draw from here, a nice match from here, you fight from there, and see what's going to happen."

Jabeur believes "nothing come easy". If you want to achieve anything of "beauty", you will have to "struggle".

"That's how I believe you can enjoy it more."

New this year:

See the draw like never before, with interactive Path to the Final view of the draw by clicking a player’s name on the draws page

See the projected Path to the Final of every player in the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ singles draws with IBM Likely to Play

View how favourable or difficult a player's draw is, with IBM AI Draw Analysis