After 19 months away from tennis due to a long-standing elbow injury, former world No. 20 Ana Konjuh made a welcome return to competition on the ITF World Tennis Tour over the weekend by winning the first tournament of her comeback on home soil at W25 Zagreb.

Konjuh defeated fellow Croat Tereza Mrdeza 6-4 6-2 to win the clay court tournament – the third professional singles title of her career – to add to her tournament triumphs at ITF $25k level in Montpellier in 2013 and at the WTA International tournament in Nottingham in 2015.

The 22-year-old has spent much of the last two years on the sidelines in an attempt to rectify an elbow problem that has dominated her thoughts for as much as a decade.

In a post on ‘Behind the Racquet’ (an initiative started by ATP player Noah Rubin) in June last year, Konjuh admitted that niggling elbow problems have troubled her since the age of 12.

A former junior world No. 1 and champion at both the Australian Open and US Open junior events in 2013, Konjuh enjoyed a rapid transition to the professional game, reaching the quarter-finals at the US Open in 2016 before climbing to a career-high WTA ranking of No. 20 in 2019.

But despite her success, the elbow problems wouldn’t go away. She underwent her first elbow surgery in 2014 and several further procedures followed. She endured a fourth surgery on the ailment last year (‘an ulnar ligament reconstruction’) in a bid to give tennis one more shot.

“I have about a 70% chance of returning but I am going for it,” she told Behind the Racquet. “I have this goal set in my mind and I’m not accepting any other outcome.”

Her remarkable resilience (it appears, after winning five matches in straight sets in Zagreb) is finally paying off.

Elsewhere last week, three women won their first professional singles titles in a strong week for teenagers on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

Nineteen-year-old Belarusian Shalimar Talbi collected her first pro title at W15 Monsatir in Tunisia, 18-year-old Sina Herrmann won her first title at W25 Grado in Italy, while sixteen-year-old Briton Matilda Mutavdzic also achieved the feat at W15 Melilla in Spain.

Seventeen-year-old Qinwen Zheng also continued her stunning form – winning her third title in four tournaments at W25 Frydek Mistek in Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, Beatriz Haddad Maia won her second title in three tournaments since her return from an anti-doping suspension, double-bagelling Poland’s Martyna Kubka in an emphatic triumph at W15 Santarem in Portugal.