Lois Boisson, the French player who lit up Roland Garros last year with her stunning run to the semifinals, said she cannot wait to return to action on Tuesday at the Madrid Open after months out injured.
Ranked 361st in the world before the 2025 edition of Roland Garros, Boisson created a sensation by reaching the last four of the Grand Slam tournament, beating top 10 players Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva in the process.
The 22-year-old backed up her maiden major appearance by winning a first tour-level title on clay in Hamburg in July and breaking into the world's top 50, but has subsequently been plagued by injuries.
"The last few months have been very difficult – the most difficult since I started playing tennis," Boisson said. "I didn't handle them very well mentally, let's say."
The world number 46, however, added that she had "learnt some lessons" from her period on the sidelines, which "will help me in the future".
"I'm convinced I have what it takes to achieve great things in tennis," she insisted.
"I'm happy today to have come out of it stronger and to have come to terms with it all a bit."
'SO MANY FALSE STARTS'
Boisson has not played competitively since September, when she withdrew from the third round of the WTA 1000 event in Beijing, due to a series of injuries and, what she labelled, "medical mistakes".
She added that the extra attention following her exploits at her home Grand Slam may have contributed to the stress on her body.
"Perhaps without realising it, it added a kind of stress, a sense of pressure - something I simply wasn't used to dealing with – all that attention surrounding me," she said.
Untimely leg niggles then an arm injury halted Boisson's star just when it appeared to be firmly on the rise.
"The two minor injuries I had to my leg weren't serious," she explained. "It was mainly this arm injury that was unexpected, to be honest, and difficult to manage.
"There were quite a few mistakes on the medical side. Each time, I was given timings that weren't realistic... That's also why there were so many false starts", such as at last week's WTA event in Rouen from which Boisson withdrew shortly before the start of the tournament.
But now Boisson is back, and she will be playing on her favoured surface, clay, at the Madrid Open, which runs from Tuesday to May 3.
"There's a really good vibe here," Boisson said.
"Being back on the circuit, at a tournament, I feel it's giving me something I haven't had for a while. It's also helping me to continue with this process of healing."
Boisson opens her debut campaign in the Spanish capital with a round-of-128 meeting with American 43rd-ranked player Peyton Stearns.
"I don't have any particular expectations," she said. "Obviously, I'm going out on court to win, to give it my all.
"But above all, I'll be absolutely delighted just to be out on court playing tennis and playing without any pain."