Undermined by injuries for many months, Fiona Ferro, who is participating in the qualifications for the Australian Open, hopes that the hardest part is now behind her.
This is perhaps the end of a long tunnel that has lasted for many months for Fiona Ferro. The Frenchwoman, former number 39 in the WTA rankings, flew to take part in the qualifications for the Australian Open with eleven other French players.
For two years, the 28-year-old player has struggled to fully blossom on a tennis court. The reason? Recurring concerns and a longer than expected convalescence due to a recalcitrant left hand. “The infiltrations having not changed anything, we wondered with the FFT doctor if we would try the operation but the surgeons consulted did not have the same opinions, they did not want to operate the same thing… One spoke of the bone, another of the tendon, and another of the ligament. We therefore decided on a long period of physiotherapy to strengthen as much as possible what was around this area”, explained the Frenchwoman to The Team.
An unsuccessful trip to the physiotherapist
Despite this long period on the sidelines and sessions with the physiotherapist, the Frenchwoman tried to play tennis again. In vain.
“I replayed a few months from February to June. One match was fine. But the second one was quite painful to play, and the third one, I couldn’t do it anymore. There, I told myself I had to operate, even though I had been told about a risky procedure where we weren’t sure it would get better… I didn’t want to play anymore without being 100%. I had a small piece of bone filed down to shorten the ulna so that there would no longer be this bony conflict. Then opened the tendon sheath to clean and remove calcifications”she told the daily.
Having fallen to 170th place in the WTA rankings, the Frenchwoman headed to Brisbane where she hopes to appear in the main draw before competing in the qualifications for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2026 tennis season.
