Martina Trevisan closes in on second Roland Garros quarterfinal after eighth straight win

When Martina Trevisan roared into her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, the tennis world had never looked more different. Then 26, the Italian was playing only her second major main draw at the pandemic-postponed 2020 Roland Garros—under dreary autumn weather and in front of truncated crowds.

In the 18 months since Trevisan, daughter of a tennis coach and sister of an ATP pro, descended from the mountain of her career breakthrough only to climb back up towards even greater, looking to combine her first WTA title with a return to the last eight in Paris.

“I'm so superstitious so every day I'm doing the same thing since the first day,” she said after defeating Magda Linette on Wednesday. “So here I have great memories from 2020, of course, and I like here because courts and the bounce, it's very high for me and I can play my best tennis with my lefty forehand.”

Where it took Trevisan seven straight wins to reach the quarters as a qualifier in 2020, her straight-set victory over Daria Saville extended her current win streak to eight in a row, having won the Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Mereym in Rabat just last week.

There she rallied from a set down to shock top seed Garbiñe Muguruza before losing just three games to Claire Liu in the final.

WATCH: Trevisan has been unbeatable since stunning former French Open champ Garbiñe Muguruza in Rabat.

“I think it's because I won a lot of matches, but I mean, in this moment I feel that it's my moment, you know?” Trevisan mused. “So, I'm feeling good on court and I stay there for every ball and I'm not feeling guilty for if I make a mistake.”

The French crowd has gotten behind the surging southpaw, lifting her to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Saville that put her into the second week, where Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich awaits after ending former No. 1 Angelique Kerber’s hopes for a Career Grand Slam.

“Today was very special,” Trevisan said. “I never played with a crowd like this. Maybe through the year I had their trust, so maybe match after match they follow me and that's why.”

Those attending Roland Garros are often thought of as savvier than the average on-site fan, and perhaps many of them know Trevisan's backstory and harrowing battle with anorexia, one that kept her off court for four years in the early 2010s.

“30 grams of cereals and a fruit in the evening,” she shared in a story written for The Owl Post, an Italian-language publication. “It was enough for me to stand up, and to worry my mother, that she ran to pick peaches from the trees just to see me eat something.”

Now back to her physical and mental best, the Italian is poised to crack the world’s Top 50 for the first time, and could see herself seeded at Wimbledon should she score a ninth straight win.

But since staying in the present has been so key to her success thus far, that’s as far out as we’ll project.