Ons Jabeur celebrates with her trophy during the podium ceremony after loosing against Elena Rybakina on Saturday. AFP

Jabeur, the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final in the modern era, was quoted by the BBC as saying her brother Hatem would "hopefully be there" on Saturday to watch her.

"But unfortunately the other members of my family don't have visas," the report, dated Friday, quoted her as saying. "It will be tough for them but they will be cheering for me back home."

Whether the family had applied for visas was not immediately clear. On its official Twitter feed, the British embassy in Tunis said it was cheering Jabeur on.

"We're sorry to hear that your parents and sister aren't able to be there to support you, and we will look into what happened," it said.

Jabeur lost the match to Russian-born Elena Rybakina, representing Kazakhstan. She said her parents weren't in the stadium either. It was not clear why.

Players representing Russia and Belarus were banned from Wimbledon in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.