Carla Suárez’s journey at Roland Garros came to an end with a more than sweet defeat. The Canarian tennis player visited one of the only contexts in which the professional athlete wins despite losing, and she did so with her return to the tennis courts in an official tournament, a whole Grand Slam, after overcoming cancer. Carla, who last summer announced that she suffered from Hodygkin’s Lymphoma, jumped on the track in Paris ready to give it her all and was about to take the victory against Sloane Stephens, with which she gave up in three rounds (3-6, 7-6, 6-4). Visibly tired from the effort of almost two and a half hours of play, Carla left Roland Garros through the front door, being one of the most acclaimed players of the day for her simple presence and the example of improvement that she has given to everyone. The world with her fight against cancer. Carla’s start in the match led to the flying of bells to those who wanted to see her win at least one more time at Roland Garros. Quarter-finalist in 2008 and 2014, the island tennis player has her favorite tournament at the Parisian Grand Slam, and at 32, possibly her last meeting in it as a professional. Suárez announced more than a year ago that this would be the last active, somewhat overshadowed by the cancer detected in July, and that it makes the story even more emotional. Suárez brushed victory with his fingertips, but in time -break of the second set, after winning the first, Stephens was able to break the manifest equality between both tennis players and force a third set in which, fresher than a Carla prey to inactivity, she would take the cat overboard for mere details.The tangible victory and access to the second round of Roland Garros is for Sloane, a finalist in 2018, but the moral triumph and the applause of the tennis world is for Carla Suárez Navarro.
