Carla Suárez smiles again and Roland Garros celebrates it

“Our hearts are full of happiness. Grateful to give you once again the greatest of welcomes, Carla Suárez.” This affectionate phrase belongs to a tweet from Roland Garros Accompanying some photos of the training session in which the Canary Islands exercised on Saturday, who had as a companion the Dutch Kiki Bertens. Smiling, the 32-year-old tennis player was preparing her return to competition at the French Grand Slam, 15 months after her last match and after overcoming cancer that was detected in August last year. She will face American Sloane Stephens on Tuesday.

Carla is happy, in the environment that she likes and supported by the tournament, the institutions and the colleagues from the tennis world, who feel admiration for what the Spanish woman has done, which was already very loved before on the circuit for its simplicity and its sympathy. “I am very happy to see her here, because she was not sure until the last moment and I pushed her to come. “Come on, Carla,” I said, ‘just go, no expectations, it will be incredible that you are.’ It will be fun for me to see her and sad that this is the last time. Here we have good memories, we played doubles … It is very inspiring that he came, ”said Garbiñe Muguruza.

“She is a fighter. I am very glad that I was able to overcome it. I love the way she’s dealt with it and having her back, it’s amazing. I saw her in Madrid and given the situation we live in, I didn’t really know what to do. I said, ‘Carla, can I hug you? And he said, ‘yes, of course, don’t worry. And I replied, ‘I don’t want to hurt you or anything.’ I am very happy that she is here, it is very nice to have her around “, expressed the Czech Petra Kvitova, another of those tennis players respected for their desire to excel, who was able to compete again after a thief destroyed her left hand (she is left-handed) with a knife in her own home in December 2016.

Serena Williams: “I miss you”

“My goal now is not to get injured and to be able to play some tournaments,” explains Suárez in the DAZN documentary. Unbeaten, which premiered on Friday and in which he reviews his career and in which the great Serena Williams intervened. “Carla, it’s always been a lot of fun playing against you, you were a sweetheart whenever we met in the locker room, I miss you!”says the winner of 23 Grand Slams. This will be the last Roland Garros for Carla, who wants to say goodbye to as many events as possible. In Paris he reached the quarterfinals twice (2008 and 2014). This time, the least of it is the result.