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.

I am very excited. It is a week until the start of the Roland Garros Junior Championships and, especially given how 2020 has played out, I cannot wait to feel the big tournament atmosphere again.

It will be odd to play Roland Garros in October and even stranger with very few people watching, but I am really looking forward to the whole experience and being able to catch up with all the other players.

Also, for those competitors like myself who were born in 2002, this will be our final Junior Grand Slam. I had envisaged the Australian Open in January being my last but, given how the season has been disrupted by Covid-19, I could not turn down the chance to feature at a Slam.

For all those saying goodbye to the junior circuit, there will be an unbelievable motivation to win. I am going to give everything I have in order to be successful.

Winning itself would be amazing and mean so much, but there is also the major incentive that a Junior Grand Slam triumph can potentially secure a wild card entry into qualifying for the main draw of the same Slam next year.

But aside from on-court aspirations, a Grand Slam is like no other tournament. Every junior player ought to play a Grand Slam if they can and experience what competing at one is like. It is an unforgettable experience to be around professional players.

In normal circumstances, feeling the support of the crowd is incredible, while the whole event gives a flavour of what your future could be and acts as an incentive to try and achieve that. It is even better when you get the taste of a Grand Slam victory.

I cannot believe it is more than a year since Oksana Selekhmeteva and I won the doubles at the US Open. It really does feel like yesterday and my biggest memory was just how unconditionally happy I was during the moment of victory.

Before the match I was quite nervous and I cannot say it was our best match together, but we won and that is all that matters. The win will be forever in my heart, but there is more to achieve.

I will be teaming up again with Oksana at Roland Garros. She is such a nice person, a tremendous friend and great player, and I always feel we have a connection. Sometimes we even say the same thing at the same time, and I think our doubles play benefits from that connection.

I feel I am in a good place entering Roland Garros. I have played several ITF World Tennis Tour events in recent weeks and I feel the level of my game has been getting progressively better. I am still not happy with the results of course because unless you win, you cannot really be satisfied.

We will see what happens, but I am in full training mode now with only days before the start of the tournament. Like I have said, I am working as hard as possible in a bid to be successful at my last Junior Grand Slam, whether that be in singles or doubles competition.

All things considered, I am thoroughly looking forward to the next few weeks and being in Paris, which is a city I adore. I love everything about it – the food, the culture, everything.

I also associate Paris with some nice times as my birthday usually falls towards the end of the tournament. Although I lost on my birthday last year, the day was not totally ruined as I went to a fancy restaurant with my parents.

It was a lovely day and it was amazing to spend some quality time together, which is something I really appreciate because the tennis calendar means we tend to live separately. While this year will be different for a whole host of reasons, Paris remains an amazing place to compete.

Away from the court, there is not a huge amount to report since my last blog piece. I’m still looking to take my driving theory test but so far, the dates have always clashed with a tournament, which I guess is normal for a tennis player.

I am in the final year of school and will have important exams, so I have a lot of study to do, although when I find the time, I am reading Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, which is incredibly absorbing.

I do love to read books set in the 18th and 19th centuries. I find those periods very interesting and it makes me want to travel back in time to see firsthand how people lived during those eras.

For now, however, my interest in both the past and future can wait. It is all about the here and now and trying to work as hard as possible to make my final Junior Grand Slam as successful as possible and I will end as I began by saying that I’m very excited.