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Italian tennis player Martina Trevisan overcomes myriad of problems to succeed at French Open

Italy's Martina Trevisan juggles her racket in a fourth round match at the French Open against the Netherlands' Kiki Bertens at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Sunday. (AP photo)

PARIS — 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 “a little” shocking, just not as much to her as to everyone else.

So after Trevisan’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 Swiatek’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.

It’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.

A decade ago, shortly after turning 16 but beset by the pressure of others’ 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.

“I hated my muscular body and I lost weight by adopting a diet that was just enough to survive,” Trevisan wrote.

Then, having returned to tennis in 2014 from a 4 1/2-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 major’s 128-player bracket at the Australian Open in January. Even with a first-round exit, she learned she was ready to compete with the best.

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