I had written the article below in the spare time that my opponent from the qualifying first round of the ITF W75 Saint-Gaudens tournament had given me, who, having a cold, did not show up for the match.
I was going to add a P.S. with my final result from this strong tournament in France.
But subsequent events led me to start with the end.
I am referring to three situations during matches that had been unfavorable for me in the past. And too many of these risk having a negative influence on the player’s mentality, turning into insecurity, fixations and ultimately into loss of confidence on the court, with obviously negative final results.
After a lot of work, I managed to reverse them in Saint-Gaudens:
- In the second round of the qualifying (the decisive one for the main draw) I met for the 4th time in my career the Brazilian Gabriela Ce (now ranked 437, but formerly 221 WTA). The last meeting was in Buenos Aires, in January last year, which I described to you in detail at that In short, I was losing, after leading 5-2 in the decider. Now, in Saint-Gaudens, things were completely reversed, I was the one who came back with 5 consecutive games from 2-5 in the decider (without having to face a single match point);
- Moreover, in the first set I won the first tie-break of this season, after having lost the previous three;
- In the first round of the main draw I defeated another player who was ranked higher, but also 9 years younger, the Frenchwoman Jenny Lim, U18 French junior champion in 2022.
Apparently, I like drama, especially since lately I’ve been watching more and more movies and theater plays. So, from 5-0 in the decider, I saw myself tied (!). In the meantime, stuck, I could only remember a match that I had lost in a similar situation, from 5-1, although I no longer knew which one and when. That’s what I was talking about earlier: the negative influence the subconscious has on a player’s mindset, in the crucial moments of a match.
I gathered my thoughts, took the match to a tie-break, which I started by saying to myself: “I decided not to lose another tie-break this year.” And I won it to 3.
I finished the tournament in the round of 16, after another good match, but in which my physique, which had been tested lately, betrayed me.
At ITF W75 Saint-Gaudens, on the court, alongside
and serving for the round of 16.
Photo Credit 1: https://openst-gaudens.fr
Anyway, apart from these three critical situations that I reversed, I played good tennis, and I’m not the only one saying that. The recent work under the guidance of coach Vlad Cătălinoiu is starting to bear fruit, since we are working very well together. I hope we can collaborate as much as possible.
And now, the original article:
Running on the court and across Europe
As I wrote two years ago in an article where I told you how a professional player who is not in the top 250 WTA supports herself (PTPA fights for the rights of players ranked at least in the top 500, more discussions on this topic, in a future article), this year I accepted to play in the spring / summer season for three teams in the championships of France, Germany and Italy. Thus, 2025 has become even more difficult for me, because I will continue – of course – on the ITF circuit. Moreover, there I aimed to play stronger tournaments (including W75).
At this time of the season, the National Championship team matches are in full swing across Western Europe.
The challenge I set myself is not only difficult in terms of the number of matches, but also – or perhaps especially – because of the travel. The team matches in the respective championships are scheduled on weekends, between two tournaments.
At TC Padova, manager Umberto Bressan asked me to help the second team, where the club’s juniors play. And I did my job by qualifying the third league team in the play-off for promotion to division B. I succeeded that, after two matches, in March and April.
I linked the one in March with two W15 tournaments in Cyprus, where I reached the quarterfinals in Singles in both, which helped me to get the best ranking since the comeback, 581 WTA (corrected, after the tournament described above, to 547) – and a title in Doubles, the 35th in this event and 45th overall.
Usually, these team matches take place on Sundays, starting at 9:00 or 10:00 and ending after 15:00. So, I have to organize everything perfectly, in order to book transportations on Sunday evening for the next location. I also ask for advice to those close to me, I value my experience in this regard and in the future I want to help new players on the circuit with advice in this matter too.
A practical example: after the first match in Italy – played in Mestre – I flew to Cyprus on Sunday evening via Belgrade and arrived at the hotel in Larnaca on Monday morning – at 4:00 AM. After only a few hours of sleep, I had to rent a car and travel with my colleagues to the tournaments location, Alaminos, a village in the Larnaca district.
I had asked the supervisor to schedule me for Wednesday, but I played the singles match on Tuesday, managing to win it. In the end, it was a good two weeks, in which I felt good and made some great friends:
Together with Jessica Bertoldo şi Gabriela Knutson
On the next trip, two team matches and two W75 tournaments were scheduled, but the plan did not quite fit together.
The first team match, also in the Italian championship, took place on Sunday, near Verona. On Monday, I was to start the W75 Koper qualifying. After winning both the singles and doubles for my team, I set off for the Mestre train station, from where I took the train to Trieste. There, the transport was waiting for me to reach Koper, in Slovenia. A journey that took 5 hours and so I arrived at the hotel around 10:00 PM. On Monday, I started the first round of singles qualies, but it was interrupted due to rain. I won it on Wednesday, and that day I also played the match for the main draw, which I lost in two close sets. In Koper, I saw improvements in the ITF circuit in terms of conditions. Hospitality (accommodation and meals) offered free to the main draw players, free transport provided, new training balls. In these conditions, you feel more comfortable as a player and you feel respected as an athlete.
The plan was to have played the next W75 in Chiasso, but due to the multitude of higher ranked players on the acceptance list, I did not enter the qualifying draw. So, the original plan changed.
Credit Foto: @club.tennis.clermontois
After a few days of training, and Easter spent at home with my cat, I went to play in the French championship for the Club Tennis Clermontois team, from the Nationale 1 league. I won a good match against a player ranked 600, and together with Andreea Roșca I ended the doubles match victorious, the team ending the day with a score of 5-1. Next, I chose a W15 tournament in the Netherlands, because it was quite close in location, so I didn’t have to fly again. I took the train to Brussels, slept there on Sunday night, and on Monday morning I left for Oegstgeest with the Flixbus. Again, I had scheduled the match for Tuesday, but this time I lost to a lower ranked player.
After this match, I had lost a little bit of my confidence, I had doubts about going to the next W75 in Saint Gaudens. I didn’t have a place to practice for the next four days because I was alone, so the only solution was to go home and fly back on Saturday.
I was choosing to pull myself together, to go play this tournament versus other times when I might have given up and skipped it. A rewarding decision, as you already read above!
A little adventure on the way to Saint-Gaudens, a small town in the south of France. I had planned a whole day for the trip. I was flying from Bucharest to Paris Charles de Gaulle, and from Gare Montparnasse, I was taking the train, with a change in Toulouse. But after landing in Paris, I found out that I had to change three means of transportation to get to the station, due to repairs on the direct line. Luckily, I had changed my trolley at home for a smaller one, to avoid contractures due to luggage. Otherwise, I don’t know what I would have done carrying it through the crowded metro stations.
After finishing the tournament in Saint-Gaudens, I left for Paris on Friday morning where, on Sunday, I played the third match of the Championship, on Sunday. Again, the same long day of travel, with three train changes in Tarbes, Paris Montparnasse and Paris Nord. I arrived at my destination with some beautiful dark circles.
This is my spring season, a full one: planes, trains, buses, luggage, tickets. But also short moments of joy on the court, conversations with colleagues, victories, defeats, smiles or tears.
Even though I still complain and even cry, sometimes, I am grateful that I can still do this job, which I have started when I was an 8-year-old girl.
I will be back with stories and results soon.
