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Years after anorexia, hiatus, Italian reaches French Open QF

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Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Italy's Martina Trevisan celebrates winning the fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament against Netherlands' Kiki Bertens in two sets, 6-4, 6-4, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

PARIS ā€“ Martina Trevisan has been doing video chats from her hotel room with her mental coach every day along the way to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, a run the 159th-ranked qualifier acknowledges is ā€œa littleā€ shocking, just not as much to her as to everyone else.

So after Trevisanā€™s 6-4, 6-4 victory against No. 5 seed Kiki Bertens at Court Suzanne Lenglen on Sunday, which was just as out-of-nowhere at this out-of-nowhere French Open as Iga Swiatekā€™s 6-1, 6-2 win against 2018 champion and No. 1 seed Simona Halep over at Court Philippe Chatrier, the 26-year-old from Florence, Italy, planned to stick to the routine.

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Itā€™s helped her for the past two years, not merely the past two weeks, which also featured unexpected wins over Coco Gauff and 20th-seeded Maria Sakkari.

Trevisanā€™s tennis coach, Matteo Catarsi, described one of the goals of the sessions with Florida-based Lorenzo Beltrame, whose clientele also includes three-time major semifinalist Johanna Konta, this way: ā€œNot to feel uncomfortable in this environment, like someone who played in Grand Slam qualifying, but to feel like a queen, like a star.ā€

Trevisan and Beltrame chat. He gives her writing assignments. She works to find the right words to describe her thoughts and buttress her self-belief. The exercise is important for where Trevisan is these days, in her sport and in her life. Itā€™s been quite a journey, one Trevisan said hopes offers others this message: ā€œDonā€™t ever give up, even in the toughest moments, where it really feels like life wants the worst for you, like it doesnā€™t care about you at all. Stay strong and seek the light. Because there is light there, and it will arrive.ā€

A decade ago, shortly after turning 16 but beset by the pressure of othersā€™ expectations, promising prospect Trevisan quit tennis, which her mother teaches and her brother played professionally (her father was a pro soccer player).

She had anorexia, an experience and recovery she discussed in detail in a blog post two months ago.

ā€œI hated my muscular body and I lost weight by adopting a diet that was just enough to survive,ā€ Trevisan wrote, saying she eventually sought help and ā€œre-learned how to eat and to make peace with my wounds and to appreciate my new body.ā€

Then, having returned to tennis in 2014 from a 4Ā½-year break, having toiled at tiny events offering total prize money of $10,000, having moved up the rankings enough to enter the qualifying rounds at Grand Slam tournaments but failing on her first nine attempts to reach the main draw, she finally made a breakthrough this year.

Trevisan made her debut in a majorā€™s 128-player bracket at the Australian Open in January after making it through qualifying, exiting from the first round with a straight-set loss to eventual champion Sofia Kenin.

Trevisan learned, though, that she was ready to compete with the best.

ā€œIā€™m more confident,ā€ she says now. ā€œI know I belong here.ā€

While Rafael Nadal overwhelmed qualifier Sebastian Korda 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 ā€” the 20-year-old American, whose father won the 1998 Australian Open, was so star-struck he asked his idol for an autograph after the rout ā€” and U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem held off French wild-card entry Hugo Gaston 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, the unpredictable outcomes kept arriving at Roland Garros in the fourth round Sunday.

U.S. Open runner-up Alexander Zverev lost 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to 19-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy, then said he had a fever and was short of breath, two symptoms that raise red flags during a coronavirus pandemic that postponed the French Open from May-June to September-October.

Sinner is the first man to reach the quarterfinals in his debut in Paris since ā€” yes, you guessed it ā€” Nadal 15 years ago and now faces the 12-time champion. Thiem, runner-up to the King of Clay the past two years, plays No. 12 seed Diego Schwartzman, a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 winner against Lorenzo Sonego.

In the other womenā€™s matches, No. 3 Elina Svitolina beat Caroline Garcia 6-1, 6-3 and next takes on Nadia Podoroska, a qualifier from Argentina who is ranked 131st and eliminated Barbora Krejcikova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Like Trevisan, Podoroska never had won a Grand Slam match until this event.

The 54th-ranked Swiatek, a 19-year-old from Poland who ended Halepā€™s 17-match winning streak, also will be making her Slam quarterfinal debut when she meets Trevisan.

ā€œNobody surprises anybody anymore,ā€ said two-time major champion Halep, who had to be taken aback at least a tad, considering she defeated Swiatek 6-1, 6-0 in 45 minutes a year ago in Paris.

Trevisan tossed her racket after closing out the biggest win of her career with a backhand lob she couldnā€™t see land; she knew the match was over when she saw the expression on 2016 French Open semifinalist Bertens' face.

A giddy Trevisan frequently laughed as she spoke in Italian with reporters ā€” about exactly how much sheā€™s earned so far ($330,000, more than her total career winnings entering 2020), about how sheā€™d describe her personality (ā€œI try to smile a lot, and I do; but when Iā€™m sad, you definitely can tell that Iā€™m sadā€) and whether, given everything she went through, Trevisan thought she could return to this level of play.

ā€œWell,ā€ she replied, ā€œIā€™d never been to ā€˜this level.ā€™ā€

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AP Tennis Writer Fendrich reported from Washington; AP Sports Writer Leicester reported from Paris.

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More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports


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