I was born with a thumb and three fingers on each hand as well as only seven toes due to a rare genetic condition - now I've earned a place at the US Open

Carlos Alcaraz was not wrong when he said he should be asking for commission from the Ibiza tourist board, as British No 5 Fran Jones became the latest tennis player to credit an uptick in fortunes to the Spaniard’s formula of a trip to the Balearic party island.

The 24-year-old Jones won her way into the main draw of the US Open on Friday, beating Arianne Hartono 6-2, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying.

Discussing her preparations for the year’s final Grand Slam, Jones said: ‘After Palermo (a tournament she won) I stayed in Sicily with my friends and family.

‘I trained a few more days then I thought I'd try the Alcaraz strategy, so I went to Ibiza for a few days. It worked!’

For the last three years, Alcaraz has partied in Ibiza with friends for a few days after the French Open: the result being two Wimbledon titles and a runner-up finish this year. British No3 Cam Norrie did the same this year, name-checking Alcaraz, and Daniil Medvedev went after Wimbledon.

‘I went with a couple of friends for a few days,’ said Jones. ‘I didn't go clubbing, I'm not keen on sweaty drunk people, I'm a bit British like that. I did go to Ushuaia which is the outdoor concert venue but I was back in the room at 12, clubbing is not for me!’

Jones was born with a rare genetic condition called Ectrodactyly Ectodermal Dysplasia, meaning she was born with a thumb and three fingers on each hand, and with only seven toes. This affects her balance, and doctors told a young Jones she had virtually no chance of playing professional tennis. But her talent and perseverance - plus the determination to move from just outside Bradford to Barcelona to train aged nine - have proven the medicos wrong.

As Jones continues to improve, and her ranking to rise, her incredible backstory is becoming more widely known.

After losing from a set up in the first round of Wimbledon, Jones won two lower-tier events on her favoured clay courts, in Contrexeville and Palermo, to reach No86 in the world.

That ranking would comfortably have gotten her into the US Open main draw, but the Palermo title came after the cutoff and so she found herself in qualifying. But she lived up to her No1 seeding and came through without dropping a set - just as her friend Emma Raducanu did here four years ago.

For Raducanu, of course, her run did not stop there.

‘What she did, I don't think it will ever be repeated,’ said Jones of her pal’s run to the 2021 title. ‘But I'll be happy to follow into some of those footsteps.

‘We speak every day, I was just texting her now. It's not about tennis necessarily. If there's something that's bothering me or bothering her then we'll discuss it, we have a really open relationship in that sense.

‘We don't really talk about tennis and I think that's why it works.’