Welcome to the latest instalment of Kamilla Bartone’s blog. The 17-year-old enjoyed a promising campaign in 2019, and hoped to continue her progress this year before the COVID-19 pandemic saw tennis suspended until at least July. Kamilla is writing regular pieces for the ITF, providing insight into life as an aspiring player in these challenging times.

Two months without playing tennis is a really long time for any tennis player. I think it’s been the longest time that I haven’t played tennis for. But in Germany, where I live, we have been able to practice again for the last two days. When I heard that I could get back on court and hit the ball again, I was really excited.

Before this week, no one has been able to play tennis in Germany since the middle of March. It was pretty tough. I was trying to do a lot of fitness but sometimes you feel so demotivated. You just spend all day at home during lockdown so you have to find the motivation from somewhere.

Imagine for a player who loves this sport not being able to even hold a racket… it’s an unbelievable feeling to be able to do that again now. I hope that tournaments will be able to be played again because I miss all my friends on the tour. The thing I miss most is the competition, that’s why we play tennis!

Before we got back on court this week, I was doing a lot of fitness and a lot of running but to be honest I’m not a big fan of running… actually, I hate running! I had to do it to stay fit and I have been trying to do something different in training every day, because when you just do the same thing you get bored and lose motivation. So, for example: focusing on balance on the first day, on my footwork the next day, then my arms, then core – something like that.

The first practice session back this week wasn’t actually too bad! I was feeling really fit, I just have to get my touch back. In two more days, I think I’ll be back on track.

I’m staying with my father in Germany at the moment while my mum is back in Latvia. We miss her a lot, of course, so we are doing a lot of video calls, otherwise we could not see her. I have been in contact with some friends from the ITF tour too, like Oksana Selekhmeteva, who is a good friend. My friend Alexandra Vecic is also in Germany at the moment but in a different region so I can’t see her in person either. I keep in touch with her on video calls too.

I’ve been reading a lot. I finished War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and found it really interesting! I haven’t watched a lot of series, but part four of Money Heist has been good – I’ve re-watched that from start to finish. I’ve watched three great films too, which I would recommend to anyone: Ford v Ferrari, War Horse and Woman in Gold. All three of those movies are based on real-life events, which I find really interesting to watch.

I’ve been able to keep up my studies in this time too. It’s harder to motivate myself to do schoolwork when I’m training a lot, because practice takes up a lot of time, so I don’t always have time to finish my work. These past weeks I’ve been able to get through my work much earlier than normal. I think lockdown has been good for my schoolwork!

The situation seems to be improving in Germany right now. It’s been tough at times, but I’m so happy to be back playing tennis again.