Alice Tubello is one of the rising stars on the WTA tour. At age 23, she has just broken through to a career high of 274 in the world. From a ranking of 722 at the end of January, it’s a spectacular achievement from a woman who has dealt with a number of injury setbacks during the last few years. But now, fit and healthy, Alice has her eye on bigger and better things. I was grateful to speak with Alice about her career so far.
Alice’s tennis journey started, as it so often does, thanks to an older sibling playing the sport.
“I first picked up a racket when I was around four. I just wanted to do the same as my brother. He’s two years and a half older than me. He was six and a half years old at this time, and the club only took kids older than six. I just wanted to be with him all the time. So instead of staying at school after the classes I was going with him and watching him play.”
It didn’t take long for the coaches at the club to see the potential from the young prodigy. While there was that silly rule about not taking children younger than six, the beauty of living in a small town, meant it was never really going to be an issue. Tubello hails from a small town called Berze, just near Clermond-Ferrand, a place which, if the map of France was turned into a dartboard, would pretty much be the bullseye.
Playing tennis with her older brother wouldn’t last too long though. Alice was soon placed in a league composing of the most talented kids in the region, and by the age of 5, was playing 3 or 4 times a week.
Tubello didn’t play a huge number of events on the ITF Junior tour – roughly 30 events across 4 years, and mainly within France and Spain – due to the financial strain the sport of tennis puts on families.
“I didn’t play so much in Junior because my parents didn’t have so much money. It was so expensive…crazy expensive, especially considering we don’t earn money (as a junior), so that’s why I didn’t play so much.”
Her first Junior title came in 2017 at the Luxembourg Outdoors Juniors Open, where she ran through the field without dropping a set. In 2018, Tubello received a Wildcard into the Junior Roland Garros qualifying, which was a huge opportunity for her.
“I qualified, I won my first round, and then I played in the second round, the number one in the world, a Taiwanese girl called En Shuo Liang, and lost in 3 sets, but that really gave me confidence.”
It was at that time, aged 17 and a half, Alice decided to play more events on the WTA tour. Her ranking was 885 after Roland Garros, but in the 6 months to the end of 2018, she had lifted this to 622, on the back of some promising ITF results, and some welcome financial backing from the French Tennis Federation.
“I think they started to help me financially when I was around 16. They just helped me to travel and to play some juniors. They also paid for my coach, who was allowed to come with me. They paid all his expenses, which was really nice. After that, they gave me a little bit of money for two years, until I was 19. In France, when you’re a little bit older and you’re not doing the junior tour anymore, you have to just find sponsors, or be lucky enough to have some parents who can pay for everything. Of course, they also helped me with the wildcard when I was a little bit younger. They still help me so much and I’m so thankful for the opportunity they gave me to play Roland-Garros twice.”
Things were heading in the right direction for the French teenager, but since then, the last 4 years have thrown up a number of hurdles on her path to the top. Those hurdles came in the form of every athlete’s worst nightmare – injuries.
“The first one was with my left wrist. I injured myself while doing a return on the second ball. That was a kick serve quite high. I went to play that high ball with my backhand, and ended up with a really sharp pain in my wrist. I really knew right away something bad happened, but I didn’t really know why, as that was the first time I experienced such a such a bad feeling like this. That was the 15th of June 2020. And I had the first surgery on the 1st of March 2021. So it took a while to really find out what was the problem.”
The problem, it turned out, was a subluxation of the extensor carpi ulnaris (in laymen’s terms, a tendon in the wrist), which, while not a common injury, is far more prevalent in sports such as tennis and golf.
But frustratingly for Tubello, the comeback was short-lived.
“I did my comeback. That was okay. I played well. I think I played for two and a half months. Then my wrist broke again. That was the tendon. So I had another major surgery.”
That required the surgeons to attach her tendon back onto her bone, take some tissue from her forearm, to use it as a retinaculum (essentially a sheath over the tendons to keep them in place). She then required a third surgery in September 2022, after she broke a metallic part that was being used to cover her tendon.
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Now, with her wrist finally in good health, it was time to reset, and resume her career. But surgery meant she couldn’t simply just pick up exactly where she left off. Changes in technique were now needed, to accommodate her reduced movement in her wrist.
She was forced to hit a flatter backhand, as the flexibility required to garner the topspin she was used to hitting, just wasn’t possibly anymore.
“After the injury in my wrist, I did another comeback. I played really well and I ended up being back, I think around 323 at my best. I got a Wildcard to play Roland Garros qualifying, but I had a problem with my shoulder. I completely lost the power on my right arm, I couldn’t lift up my arm anymore….my arm was completely dead. It didn’t respond, so we knew something was wrong with the nerve. I had to have another surgery, and they removed a ligament, where the nerve was compressed. Now everything is okay.”
Tubello’s fourth comeback began in January this year, after nearly 8 months on the sidelines. Her ranking had dropped from a career high 323, down to 722. But now, just 6 months into her – hopefully permanent – return to the court, the Frenchwoman is in career best form, and has already exceeded her career high ranking, reaching 274 at the time of writing.
Alice made the quarter-finals of an ITF W75 event on her return, and has been on a run that has seen her:
- Win a W15 in Le Havre, France, followed up by another title a week later at the first W35 in Burundi,
- Reach the final of the second Burundi W35 the following week.
- Win a W35 title in Columbia
- Reach three Semi-finals – 2 W35’s, and a W15
- Plus the Quarter-finals of a W35
In that kind of form, the French Federation had no choice, but to grant her a Wildcard into Roland Garros qualifying. In what is the highlight of her career so far, Alice won her first qualifying match against Taipei’s Ya Yi yang, before going under to Sara Errani in round two.
“Playing Roland-Garros was absolutely insane, amazing, really such a good experience. It’s a special atmosphere, being French and playing Roland-Garros. It’s crazy, people cheering you on, like they were on the court. It’s giving you so much energy, so much adrenaline that you feel like you can’t lose.”
There were definitely some nerves though, especially considering the last Roland Garros experience resulted in an immediate surgery on her shoulder.
“I was so nervous for my first match because last year, I lost in third set. I had my surgery in my shoulder, so I was in such a strong pain. Having that first victory was incredible. I had my family, my parents, my coaches, everyone was there. So many kids. It’s amazing. After I played Sara Errani on the center court, there were like 8,000 people screaming my name. I’ve never felt so good and at the same time so nervous because that was such a big stadium.”
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Since then, there have been two more quarter-final appearances, and another final in a W35.
“My goal right now is to make the quallies of every Grand Slam next year, and hopefully the main draw after that. I’m back in shape, I’m fit right now, I feel like I can really compete.
The big difference at the moment for Alice, is that she is pain-free. For athletes, playing through constant pain is a horrible experience, and doesn’t allow for consistency in performance.
“I don’t have pain. I always had pain somewhere. I feel pretty strong right now, both physically and mentally, and I’m playing almost every single week, and it pays off, so that’s great.”
Already in 2024, her record stands at 48-13, and on this trajectory, it’s highly likely we’ll see her pushing up towards the top 200, and potentially 100, sooner, rather than later.
But for now, there are more important things than just a ranking.
“I’m back playing tennis without pain, which is really, really great for me, and that’s the most important thing. I played so many tournaments and matches with the pain, and now it’s so cool to just be able to play and enjoy again.”
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