NEW YORK — Shortly after shedding in U.S. Open qualifying a yr in the past, tennis participant Fiona Ferro accused her former coach, Pierre Bouteyre, of rape. That case continues to be pending, and Ferro took a couple of months off from the tour after going public along with her story, however she returned to Flushing Meadows on Monday to play within the Grand Slam event’s major draw for the primary time since 2021.

Ferro, a wild-card entry from France who misplaced to two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-2 within the first spherical, mentioned she has not employed a brand new private coach. Instead, she is working as a part of a group of a couple of half-dozen gamers with a coach from the French tennis federation, Eric Winogradsky.

“I wasn’t feeling really ready to get into a new project with a coach, 1-to-1,” Ferro mentioned Monday. “I think I needed to be in a group with other players, because it was tough for me to be alone with only one coach.”

After her hiatus from the game by means of the top of final season, Ferro started taking part in membership matches with mates that, she defined, “made me want to play tennis again.”

“I think I really needed that break, because it was a lot things at the same time. With the case, I had to deal with some tough moments,” mentioned the 26-year-old Ferro, who has been ranked as excessive as No. 39 and reached the fourth spherical of the 2020 French Open. “Then I started practicing at the federation again.”

The Associated Press usually doesn't determine individuals who say they've been sexually assaulted except they arrive ahead publicly.

Ferro wrote on social media final yr about her accusation towards Bouteyre and mentioned, “I did not consent.”

She was simply one of many feminine tennis gamers who introduced consideration to the problem of defending athletes from predatory coaches. The ladies’s tennis tour, the WTA, employed a director of safeguarding on the finish of 2022, Lindsay Brandon, a lawyer whose previous shoppers embrace athletes disputing doping suspensions.

“For the moment, my case is still ongoing, so I can’t really talk about it. But the (French) federation supports me in that. They provide a coach. And I feel like I can talk to them and can be understood. So for me, that’s an important point,” Ferro mentioned.

“They’re really listening to me and, yes, I think they’re trying to do things regarding this kind of problem, because obviously it’s not just something that happened to me over the last years, but I think it also happened to other players - or maybe not in tennis, but in other sports,” she mentioned. “So it’s something that needs to be addressed. The federation is trying to work on it.”

Ferro mentioned she additionally has acquired help from the WTA, and from different athletes, throughout her authorized case.

“Some players came to me (to talk in the locker room) and said that I was brave and wishing all the best to me,” Ferro mentioned.

When their match resulted in Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday, Azarenka - a former No. 1 participant seeded 18th on the U.S. Open - put a hand on Ferro’s shoulder and leaned ahead to supply “some kind words” in her ear, as Ferro put it.

“She told me that she was so happy to see me back and she wished me good luck for the next tournaments,” Ferro mentioned. “So for me, it’s so nice to hear that. It really was moving.”

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