After Battle With Anorexia, Martina Trevisan Bids For Place In Fourth Round At French Open - UBITENNIS
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After Battle With Anorexia, Martina Trevisan Bids For Place In Fourth Round At French Open

The Italian player is enjoying a dream run in Paris during what has been a difficult career at times.

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Martina Trevisan at Roland Garros 2020 (photo Twitter @Rolandgarros)

The fairytale run of Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan at the French Open is noteworthy but it is her backstory that makes it even more special.

 

The 26-year-old Florence-born player didn’t make her main draw debut at a Grand Slam until this year’s Australian Open. Her breakthrough occurred following years of hard work on the court and a battle with a serious eating disorder in which Trevisan said she had to be ‘re-educated to eat.’

Trevisan struggled with the disorder during her teenage years at a time where her father was diagnosed with a degenerative disease. During her junior career she showed promise with a run to the semi-finals of the girls doubles tournament at both Wimbledon and the French Open back in 2009. However, her rise in the sport came to a halt due to anorexia which forced her to take a break from playing for more than four years (January 2010 – May 2014).

“I hated my muscular body and imposed on myself diets on the verge of survival to lose weight,” Trevisan wrote in a blog for The Owl Post.
“Thirty grams of cereals and a fruit in the evening. It was enough for me to stand up, and to worry my mother, who ran to pick peaches from the trees just to see me eat something.
“Fortunately, having reached the point of no return, I realised that I could not go on like this. I had lost all interest, I had closed myself in my cocoon, in a state of apathy in which I no longer even recognised myself.”
“I was re-educated to eat, to make peace with my wounds.”

Eating disorders do occur in tennis among players but they are rarely talked about in public. Studies have shown that athletes are more prone to developing these kind of issues than non-athletes, according to the International Tennis Federation. Monica Seles has previously spoken about binge eating and Madison Keys suffered from an eating disorder when she was younger.

Now fully healthy, Trevisan finds herself unexpectedly making waves at the French Open this week. After coming through three rounds of qualifying, she scored wins over Camila Giorgi and Coco Gauff en route to the third round. Becoming the only Italian woman to reach the third round of Roland Garros this year. A stark contrast to the men who have five players in the last 32.

Anorexia can be cured,” said Trevisan.
“Almost without realising it I found myself again with a racquet in my hand.”

The next test for Trevisan will be 20th seed Maria Sakkari. A tough task for the world No.159 who is yet to win a set against a player ranked inside the world’s top 50 in her career. In fact Sakkari will be the third-highest ranked player she has ever played after Kiki Bertens (Charleston, 2019) and Sofia Kenin (Australian Open, 2020).

“I work every day to be in the third round of a Grand Slam. It’s not easy to achieve this result but I wake up every morning thinking about my dream, and I have achieved one of my dreams,” she said following her win over Gauff.

Trevisan’s match against Sakkari will be the last to take place on Court Simonne-Mathieu on Friday.

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Carlos Alcaraz beats Yannick Hanfmann on his debut at the China Open

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This year’s Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz beat Yannick Hanfmann 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 37 minutes on his debut at the China Open in Beijing three weeks after reaching the semifinal at the US Open. 

 

Alcaraz has improved his win-loss record to 59-7, leading the ATP Tour. The Spanish player leads the ATP Tour with 8 titles and 5 finals. 

Hanfmann saved eight of the eleven break points and broke twice in the first set. 

Alcaraz earned an early break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead, but Hanfmann broke straight back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Alcaraz converted his fourth break point in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Hanfmann pulled back on serve in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Alcaraz earned his third break with a forehand at 4-4 to seal the first set. 

Alcaraz broke twice in the third and ninth games to close out the second set 6-3. The two-time Grand Slam champion did not face a break point in the second set. 

Alcaraz converted five of the sixteen break points he faced. 

Alcaraz set up a second round match against Lorenzo Musetti, who beat Karen Khachanov 6-3 1-6 6-2. Khachanov won at the Zhuhai Open last week beating Yoshihito Nishioka  in the final. 

“Hopefully I have a lot of years to come here to China. Creating my chapter here in China would be great for me. To finally be able to come here to China and show my tennis in front of the Chinese people is something that I wanted a long time ago and I am really happy to do it, hopefully the first of many here”, said Alcaraz. 

Musetti converted his second break point in the second game to take a 3-0 lead. Khachanov broke back in the fifth game to draw level to 3-3. Musetti broke for the second time in the eighth game to seal the first set 6-3. 

Khachanov broke twice in the second and sixth games to close out the second set 6-1. 

Musetti broke Khachanov twice in the sixth and eighth games to seal the third set 6-2. 

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Jessica Pegula and Maria Sakkari advance to the semifinal in Tokyo

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Number 2 seed Jessica Pegula cruised past Daria Kasatkina 6-1 6-0 in just 59 minutes at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo to reach her seventh semifinal of the 2023 season.

 

Kasatkina earned an early break in the opening game of the match, but Pegula reeled off 12 consecutive games. The US player hit 25 winners and broke six times. She saved three break points as she served out the first set. Kasatkina was not able to convert eight game points across her first two service games. 

Pegula has scored her second win in as many matches against Kasatkina after beating her Russian opponent 7-5 6-3 in the first round in Rome 2021. 

Pegula has improved to 10-9 against top 20 rivals in 2023. 

Pegula set up a semifinal match against Maria Sakkari, who beat Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-2 in the quarter final. Sakkari claimed her second win in a week over her French rival equalling her career-best streak of seven consecutive match wins. Last week Sakkari beat Garcia 6-3 6-0 in the semifinal of the Guadalajara Open.  

Sakkari hit 15 winners to eight unforced errors and saved all six break points. 

The US player will meet her Greek rival for the ninth time in her career and for the third time this season. Sakkari leads 5-3 in her head-to-head matches against Pegula. They are 1-1 in their 2023 clashes. Pegula took the win 6-2 4-6 6-1 in the semifinal in Doha, but Sakkari turned the tables by winning the Washington semifinal 6-3 4-6 6-2. 

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Asian Games Champion Qinwen Zheng Reveals Shock Departure Of Coach Fissette

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Image via https://twitter.com/WTA_insider

China’s Qinwen Zheng says she feels ‘hurt’ by the decision of her former coach to end their collaboration in order to work with another player. 

 

The US Open quarter-finalist had been working with Belgium’s Wim Fissette in recent weeks following the departure of Pere Riba who is now the coach of Coco Gauff. Fissette has a wealth of experience in women’s tennis after working with the likes of Kim Clijsters and Naomi Osaka. However, Zheng says she is now looking for a new mentor.

“I understand his decision, but my family and I feel hurt. Right now I don’t want to talk about this person (Fissette),’ journalist Bendou Zhang quoted her as saying. 

Fissette is yet to comment on his departure. He had previously coached former world No.1 Osaka between 2019-2022 and during this period she won two of her four Grand Slam titles. The American-based Japanese player is on maternity leave from the sport and gave birth to her first child in July.

20-year-old Zheng is currently ranked 23rd in the world and won her maiden WTA title in Palermo earlier this year. She is the youngest player from her country to have reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam in the Open Era following her run at Flushing Medows. This year she has beaten top 10 players Ons Jabeur and Daria Kasatkina. 

Zheng’s latest career milestone is winning gold at the Asian Games on Friday. in the final, she defeated Zhu Lin 6-2, 6-4, in the blistering Hangzhou heat.

“The feeling was incredible,” Zheng said. “I’m really happy about that. That was not an easy match today and also yesterday (in semifinal against Alex Eala). All of them are good fighters.”

It is not clear who Zheng will be working with during the Asian swing. 

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