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.
