Before starting my last trip, I was thinking that I will not have anything spectacular to write about, that my stories will be about the long-awaited singles victories, that everything will work according to the plan, that I will play the four consecutive tournaments and slowly get back little by little the form I desire. But quite a lot happened in the first three weeks. Let’s take my adventures one at a time.

I started at Trieste, where last year I was runner up, after a very good tournament. This year I played in the qualifying draw, because of the ranking affected by the hand injury, which did not allow me to play all summer.

At these W25 tournaments, in the qualies you don’t have a chair umpire (the players are keeping the score), the balls don’t change at all during the match, and the decisive set is a match tie-break, like in doubles. I played with a very good defensive player, an Italian, so I had to be the offensive one in most of the points. I lost 10-8 in the match tie-break.

The tournament continued for me in doubles, but it was moved to indoor courts due to the stormy weather. The girls on the main draw – among them Ilona Ghioroaie and Ilinca Amariei – started the first round on the indoor courts, and continued the second round outside. Ilinca Amariei had the misfortune of being scheduled in the round of 16 on a court that was not dry at all. The tournament umpire hurried the start of the match even though the court surface was not in the best conditions (i.e. very soft) and the foot could get stuck in the clay. Unfortunately, precisely this happened. At 5-4 30-30, Ilinca ran to a short ball and her ankle got stuck in the clay, thus affecting her knee. She couldn’t continue the match, but neither could she walk for the next hour.

But what really shocked me was the attitude of the organizers. No one came to help her, they didn’t call any doctor, they didn’t even cooperate when I asked them to take her to the airport. The answer we got was: we don’t offer that. Although it was an exceptional situation.

Luckily, Călin Moga, the owner of the Romanian club I’m playing for, was present and he drove her to the airport.

I hope that in the future, at ITF tournaments also, players will be protected in exceptional cases and will be treated with more care and professionalism.

After this adventure, I continued my doubles tournament until the semi-finals, together with Ilona.

From there, I went to the next tournament, a W60, in Vienna. In the qualies I played a good, long match against a valuable Slovakian junior, ranked 11th in ITF Juniors. Even though I didn’t win it, it gave me confidence that I could get back to play at a higher level and go a full match without pain.

I continued to train that week in parallel with the doubles matches. Every practice gave me even more confidence and it showed in doubles, where we reached the semi-finals. There we lost against the Austrian doubles pair in the Billie Jean King Cup.

After that, I travelled to the third tournament in consecutive weeks, of my supposed four tournament series. A W25 one in Varna, Bulgaria. How happy I was when I found a direct flight at a decent price from Vienna!

I started the week with the best feeling – physically and mentally – since a long time, easy to notice during my first practices in Bulgaria. Nothing announced the next day’s event.

I was playing in the first round against an Italian ranked 450 that week (Lisa Pigato, Roland Garros 2020 junior doubles champion). We knew each other’s game well. So it remained to decide for the better tactics and form. In the first set, I controlled my emotions better, I played more consistently, I was running and working on every ball, I was doing my best to get the much desired first singles win after the re-entry: 6-3 for me (I had learned my lesson from the previous match, not to lose focus at 5-3, so I converted the first set point).
In the second set, she broke away to 3-0, after several close games. I managed to get back to 2-3, but my left knee was showing signs of fatigue and I was praying that it would last until the end of the match. It was not like that. On the 3-3 ball, I changed direction and felt a crack in my left knee.

I tried to continue but couldn’t, because of the pain. I couldn’t believe this had just happened to me. I was alone, thus I had to take by myself the decision to retire, which was difficult, knowing what I went through all summer.

In the meantime, Ilona came to help me with her physiotherapist, and that’s how I managed to get to the hotel, after going through the bureaucratic medical withdrawal procedures.

In the evening I was on the minibus to Bucharest, 6 hours with the injured knee bent, but also with pain.

The next morning, I was already doing the MRI. The result was not very good, a meniscus tear. Plans were to be changed again. More about the story of the medical and recovery procedures that I will go through, in the next article.

But let’s end this article on a positive note:

• first of all, I want to thank everyone who supported me these days, and there quite many, who did sent messages that I felt were sincere, coming from the heart. That’s how I got more easily over the shock caused by a new injury that came so soon after another one
• I had also another reason to be glad after this tournament: my constant doubles partner, with whom I had very good results –  we were supposed to play together here as well – Ilona Ghioroaie won her first title in the ITF W25 category.

With Ilinca Amariei, Călin Moga [foto 1] and Ilona Ghioroaie