Beatriz Haddad Maia acknowledges the bad season bluntly. He lists his defeats, admits that he has lost aggression and that changing his serve in the middle of the circuit is like “changing the tire on a moving car”. But the São Paulo native arrives at Roland Garros ensuring that the process is on the right track.
“My level of tennis is already getting high again in training. It’s a matter of time,” she said, this Friday (22), in an interview. “I’m sure I’ll be able to execute that in the game.”
On Sunday (24), Bia opens her participation in Roland Garros against the British Francesca Jones, 101st in the WTA rankings, aged 25. The Brazilian enters the French Grand Slam in 78th place in the rankings — far from 10th place, her best historical mark, reached in 2023. In 2026, she has accumulated 14 defeats in 18 matches.
Recovery has a defined starting point. In September last year, Bia ended the season ahead of schedule. It wasn’t an injury. It was mental health.
“In my career, many of the moments in which I stopped were due to injury. This was the first time that I made a decision of my own free will,” he said. “What I felt was not what I wanted, and that contradicted my heart. But it was important, it brought me a lot of awareness and made me stronger to make the decisions I needed.”
The stop paved the way for changes in the surrounding area. In the last 18 months, there has been a change of coach, departure of committee members and reorganization of mental support work. The current coach is Spanish Carlos Martinez Comet, whom he defines as “an incredible person, very professional”. According to her, his influence has a mark: “Carlos has a slightly more Spanish vision, of having a little more time on the ball.”
Bia claims that she built her career doing the opposite. “For a long time I achieved a lot by stepping inside and being very aggressive. I lost some of that aggression, it’s something we’re working on.”
The change in loot is the most concrete example of the adaptations underway. “From the grip, to the feet… anyone who plays tennis knows how much a degree of change in a wrist, a hand, a finger changes everything.”
Bia chose to do this process competing, not at home. “I’ve never had a problem with losing, I’ve never been ashamed of losing. When we expose ourselves, even if we don’t feel 100% safe, it also says something about us.”
For Roland Garros, where she was a semifinalist in 2023, she makes no predictions. “I never knew when I was going to make the semi-finals, I never knew when I was going to break records. And I never wanted to know.”
What changes this time, he says, is the feeling in training. “It’s been about a week since I’ve felt a change in key. I’m playing with high-level players and playing good service games. My confidence is being built in training.”
