Injured since her match in the Billie Jean King Cup, the Nice native Diane Parry is struggling to return to the circuit. After two failures this season, she was registered for the Antalya challenger.
Three matches, three defeats. This is the dismal record of Diane Parry at the start of the year. Struggling with her physical condition, the Nice native first attempted to return to competition at the Australian Open against Donna Vekic. Then she tried her luck again in Abu Dhabi three weeks later against a young Serbian, Teodora Kostovic, before withdrawing during the match. Was it due to her injured knee in the Billie Jean King Cup in Bogota at the end of last year? Probably, but maybe not only…
Nevertheless, the 22-year-old from the French Riviera seemed ready to bounce back this Wednesday in Antalya. At a challenger where the top seed is none other than Emiliana Arango (against whom she got injured), the French player was one of the favorites. Despite a drop to 109th place in the world rankings, she remained the No. 2 seed. Unfortunately, she was unable to live up to this status against Veronika Erjavec (25 years old, ranked 154th in the world).
While her tennis sensations seem better, it is her serve that still causes problems. With less than 40% of points won behind her first serve, it was difficult to hope to progress. Trailing from the beginning to the end of the match, Diane Parry was defeated (7-5 / 6-4).
It remains to be seen whether the athlete from Nice feels capable of stringing together matches or if she is still too physically unfit. Now, Diane Parry has several options, including participating in the qualifiers of the Bogota tournament in ten days. A way to chase away old demons…