Caroline Garcia celebrates her return to tennis getting her feet dirty.

"Excited" is how the 26-year-old Frenchwoman described her state of mind resuming training on the red clay of the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca after two months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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"I was expecting it to be much longer," Garcia said. "And I got very lucky because I was able to train at home with a lot of material.

"So I was pretty lucky and the Academy helped me out a lot. So I'm healthy and back on court and I'm excited to start. We are starting slowly, but it's good."

The two-month sabbatical marks the longest time without tennis of Garcia's career. She says playing is a pleasure after a lengthy break.



"I'm very excited to be back on court," Garcia said. "It's the first time for me I don't play tennis for two months. I took already in the past a one-month layoff, but never two. So I was a little bit worried to see how my body was going to react, but I'm happy.

"For now I play only one hour a day because we have time and we want to keep healthy. And it's a little bit tough because we don't know when we are going to start tournaments again. But we just want to play and enjoy."

Photo credit: @PorscheTennis