Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro fell just short of a dream return to competitive tennis as she lost to Sloane Stephens at the French Open on Tuesday, little more than a month since declaring she had won her battle with cancer.
The 32-year-old was two points from victory in the second set but eventually went down 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-4.
While the disappointment was etched on her face at the end, just being back on court was already a victory for the former world No 6 who in September 2020 announced that she was being treated for the early stage of Hodgkin lymphoma, having initially thought she was suffering from Covid-19.
After several months of gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she announced in April that she had been given a clean bill of health and was targeting a proper farewell to the sport she has graced – on the court.
In her first match since February 2020, Suarez Navarro looked like she had never been away at times as her sublime single-handed backhand helped her take control.
After dominating the opening set she looked close to victory when she served for the match at 5-4 in the second.
But former US Open champion Stephens dug deep to level the match by winning a tiebreak.
Stephens got ahead in the third set but Suarez Navarro gamely battled back to 4-4 only to falter as tiredness crept in.
Sadly there were no spectators on Court Simonne-Mathieu with the first-round match finishing way past the 9pm local time curfew. Had there been a few tears might have been shed.
Suarez Navarro, now ranked 118th in the world, returned to practice in December having said in late 2019 that she intended to quit at the end of 2020.
But robbed of a proper conclusion to her career last season she has returned and is still hoping to gain selection for the Spanish team for the Tokyo Olympics.
World No 1 Ashleigh Barty survived a difficult first-round match against Bernarda Pera.
Barty is back at Roland Garros for the first time since winning the title in 2019 and has been in excellent form this season, collecting three titles and cementing her place at the top of the rankings.
Barty took the opening set but American Pera fought back to win the second and the top seed, who had strapping on her left thigh, then took a medical time-out.
The Australian did not look completely comfortable in the deciding set but pulled away at the end to win 6-4 3-6 6-2.
Women’s results
First round: Ashleigh Barty (Aus) bt Bernarda Pera (USA) 6-4 3-6 6-2, Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) bt Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Svk) 6-4 6-0, Qiang Wang (Chn) bt Su-Wei Hsieh (Tpe) 2-6 6-4 7-5, (30) Anett Kontaveit (Est) bt Viktorija Golubic (Swi) 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-0, Magda Linette (Pol) bt Chloe Paquet (Fra) 6-3 6-3, (32) Ekaterina Alexandrova (Rus) bt Venus Williams (USA) 6-3 6-1, Varvara Lepchenko (USA) bt Shuai Zhang (Chn) 6-3 6-3, (9) Karolina Pliskova (Cze) bt Donna Vekic (Cro) 7-5 6-4, (24) Cori Gauff (USA) bt Aleksandra Krunic (Ser) 7-6 (13-11) 6-4, (18) Karolina Muchova (Cze) bt Andrea Petkovic (Ger) 1-6 6-3 6-4, Sloane Stephens (USA) bt Carla Suarez Navarro (Esp) 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4
Second round: Ana Bogdan (Rom) bt (2) Naomi Osaka (Jpn) w/o, Elena Vesnina (Rus) bt (11) Petra Kvitova (Cze) w/o
