Welcome to the latest instalment of Kamilla Bartone’s blog. The 18-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 August. Kamilla is writing regular pieces for the ITF, providing insight into life as an aspiring player in these challenging times.

It has been two months since my last blog for the ITF website and in that time it has been all about playing tennis for me. I have missed it so much.

I started to play some national-level tournaments here in Germany, where I am living with my Dad, and the good news is that I won the first event that I played in Pulheim. I even beat a Top 250 WTA player [Marie Benoit].

The bad news is that in the second tournament that I played I was in the quarter-finals when I turned my ankle. I was taken to hospital to have an X-ray, because I was in so much pain, but fortunately it’s only a sprain and I should be fully recovered in about two weeks as long as I stretch and follow doctor’s orders.

I felt in pretty good shape on the court. Beating a player ranked inside the Top 250 is brilliant for my confidence. I know that when the real tournaments start again I can compete at that level.

I’m hoping to make a return to the ITF World Tennis Tour in Holland on 17 August at the W15 Alkmaar. It’s really difficult to make plans when everything is still so uncertain. Even in Germany unofficial tournaments are being cancelled because of everything that is happening here.

Overall the situation in Germany is pretty good. The percentage of sick people is pretty low now, but you have to wear face masks everywhere you go – supermarkets, malls, everywhere – but I think people are pretty relaxed about it and everyone is trying to think positively about it.

This year was supposed to be a transition for me as it was supposed to be my last year playing Juniors. I was hoping I could play more ITF professional events but this year nothing has really happened in the tennis world.

I’m definitely more motivated to play better next year because it feels as though we lost one year of playing tennis – one year of our tennis careers – so it’s really good motivation to play even better.

Because it’s hard to make plans this year, I have decided that 2020 is all about preparing for 2021. Next year I want to be Top 250. I think it’s possible if tennis gets back to a regular calendar.

I have really missed seeing new countries and seeing my friends on tour. It was nice to be at home at the start of the lockdown but now I just want to get back to normal.

At first it was strange playing tennis again after so much time away from the court but you soon get the rhythm back and once you start to get the feeling back you feel so much more comfortable on the court.

It was really sad that there was no Wimbledon this year. I really missed it a lot because it’s one of the nicest tournaments in the whole of tennis, but I couldn’t do anything, so I was just re-playing my memories in my head and contacting my friends (we all miss this tournament a lot) and I hope maybe in two years I can play again.

If Roland Garros goes ahead I will probably play the Juniors there, but the rest of my attention is on professional events.

Away from the tennis court I had my 18^th birthday last month. I was in Germany and I was celebrating with all the people from my club – it wasn’t like I wanted it to be, but it wasn’t too bad.

I haven’t had much time to do a lot of reading because I was finishing my schoolwork and I have been studying for the Theory Test as I’m hoping to start having driving lessons really soon.

Otherwise it has been tennis, tennis, tennis. I practice from 10am-1pm and then I have one hour of fitness and then another two hours of tennis. That’s just a normal day for me.