The Telegraph

World No159 Martina Trevisan garnered attention on Wednesday when she knocked out American 16-year-old Coco Gauff in a three-set thriller. It saw the Italian progress to the third round of a grand slam for the first time in her career and only in her second appearance in the main draw of a major. But the irony is that, a decade ago at a similar age to Gauff, the Italian was struggling through a battle much more challenging than any she has faced on the court, when she was diagnosed with anorexia. Trevisan had been a promising junior prospect, reaching the semi-final of Roland Garros and Wimbledon juniors in the girls doubles at 16. But, in a first person piece penned earlier this year, she revealed her life was taking a downward turn during that time, after her father was diagnosed with a degenerative disease and she began rebelling against her mother. She largely gave up tennis, and with that also began dramatically controlling her meal intake. "I hated my muscular body and imposed on myself diets on the verge of survival to lose weight," Trevisan wrote for athlete blog The Owl Post. "Thirty grams of cereals and a fruit in the evening. It was enough for me to stand up, and to worry my mother, who ran to pick peaches from the trees just to see me eat something." In her four years away from the tennis circuit, between 2010 and 2014, she lost a huge amount of weight and was only able to emerge from the grips of the disease through rehabilitation, which she said "re-educated" her eating habits. It was then that tennis re-entered her life. "I was re-educated to eat, to make peace with my wounds," she wrote. "To appreciate my new body, to forgive those who made mistakes and to find my time to do things. Almost without realising it I found myself again with a racket in hand." After a few years of coaching she eventually began playing on the ITF circuit and now at 26 found herself the victor in an upset at Roland Garros. On her win against Gauff, Trevisan held her nerve after failing to serve it out at 5-3 in the decider when a contested ball saw her clash with the umpire. She eventually took the set 7-5, and with it the match against an opponent she describes as "the best young player in the world". Next up is Greece's Maria Sakkari on Friday, a player who put up a fight against Serena Williams at the US Open. For Trevisan, she is on the brink of making the second week of a major, a prospect which would have seemed impossible 10 years ago.