When Mayar Sherif set foot on Court Philippe-Chatrier for her Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros on Tuesday against No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova, the Egyptian history-maker had one overwhelming thought on her mind – this is where I belong.

Entering the record books as the first Egyptian woman to ever compete at a major, Sherif would have been forgiven had she been intimidated by her opponent or the occasion, but the 24-year-old from Cairo played to win.

And win she almost did. She saved eight set points on her way to a one-set lead over the Czech star, and pushed her to a decider before falling 6-7(9) 6-2 6-4.

“It was an amazing feeling. I cannot describe it. It just gave me so much energy. I loved playing in the stadium. I loved having attention. I loved people being there, supporting. I enjoyed it so much. I enjoyed the pressure moments,” Sherif said while addressing a packed virtual press conference room that saw her field questions from Japanese, French, British, American, German and Egyptian media.

“I enjoyed all of it. I hope, I really hope to come back next year.”

Sherif is one of 29 players from 22 countries to have received 2020 International Player Grand Slam® Grants financed by the Grand Slam Development Fund (GSDF).

The main purpose of the fund is to provide opportunities for players like Sherif, contributing towards their competition-related costs, with the aim of helping them to develop as professional tennis players and compete in Grand Slam tournaments.

At 172 in the world, Sherif is the first Egyptian woman to crack the top 200 in the rankings, and as she continues to break new ground for herself and her nation, she admits the GSDF has been a huge help.

“Honestly it meant so much, just to know that someone is out there that is trying to help,” Sherif told the ITF in Paris on Tuesday.

“That it’s a committee that almost gets nothing from helping me, they are just betting on it because they believe that I’m from one country that needs some help. It gave me some mental push to be honest at the beginning and obviously financially it was so good to get that money and now I’m still getting that money for this year and it’s really helping me a lot.”

Sherif was a top-50 ranked junior but couldn’t afford to travel much to tournaments and opted to go to the United States to attend a university and play college tennis there. She first joined Fresno State before transferring to Pepperdine, seeking a higher level of competition. She graduated with a degree in sports medicine and finished her college tennis career by reaching the semi-finals of the NCAA Championship.

She started 2019 unranked, and racked up six ITF titles throughout the season, posting more than 70 victories, including a 26-match winning stretch. That all happened in the span of 10 months.

Now ready to take the next step in her career, with one eye on becoming the North African country’s first woman to make it into the top 100, and the first Egyptian player to join that elite club since Ismail El Shafei in 1978, Sherif explains how tough it can get trying to make it as a pro.

“Honestly last year I was struggling financially to a point that I couldn’t pay for one plane ticket to travel, or I couldn’t pay my rent. This GSDF fund for me was the world because it gave me the chance to arrive where I am now because otherwise, where could I have got that from anyone?” she said in Paris.

Last season wasn’t just a massive boost for Sherif’s ranking and confidence, it also saw the Cairene clinch the gold medal at the African Games, which means she could become the first Egyptian – alongside her countryman Mohamed Safwat – to compete at the Olympics should she maintain a top-300 ranking as well as good standing with her Federation.

The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Sherif is not too disappointed, as she now has more time to gain experience on the tour in order to be ready to take on the marquee field at the Games in 2021.

“It means a lot for me competing here at Roland Garros at a high level. It gets me prepared for the Olympics, because obviously at the Olympics it's going to be a very high level,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “So I hope I get to play many tournaments as big as this, and as high a level as this, to get me prepared to the Olympics.”

Sherif exudes confidence, both on the court and off it, and when she’s asked about the Olympics and which athletes she’d be keen to meet in Tokyo, her response is a telling one.

“For me, it’s just it would be nice to be there in the biggest sports event in the world but I don’t know, I didn’t really have anyone in mind to go and talk to and all this. Because I always imagined myself being one of those people, and this is who I want to be – I want someone to come to me and wanting to ask me questions and talk to me and all this,” she says with a smile.

She does have a favourite Olympic sport to watch though. “I love watching gymnastics at the Olympics. I think they are strongest athletes over there, I truly enjoy watching gymnastics,” she added.

Sherif’s exploits in the French capital, through qualifying and the main draw garnered lots of attention from Egyptians back home and around the world, including Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah, who shared the news on his Twitter when she qualified for Roland-Garros last week.

‘The Egyptian King’ as he is popularly nicknamed at Merseyside hasn’t reached out to her directly, but Sherif already knows what she’d like to ask him if he ever does.

“I wish he would,” she grins.  “That would be very, very nice. But the thing I would ask him is how did he break the barrier of believing or being the first of doing something so big from Egypt as a person that comes from Egypt? How did he go through that? And how were the stages to get to the point to where he is now?”

So what would be her message to young girls in Egypt looking to follow in her footsteps?

“There are many obstacles in Egypt that can stop a tennis player from, especially a female tennis player, from playing. They have to always believe, they have to always fight through this to get to where they want,” Sherif concludes.