She may not have featured at junior level for more than two years, but Ukraine’s Daria Lopatetska arrived in Paris on a mission – to add a Junior Grand Slam title to her trophy collection.

Lopatetska, who is ranked No. 355 in the world, navigated a tough second set against 13-year-old rising star Brenda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic, winning 6-1 7-6(3), to set up a second-round showdown against Russia’s Oksana Selekhmeteva.

The pair have met only once previously, at the 2018 Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Finals in Budapest – a match Lopatetska won. Incidentally, that tournament, which saw Ukraine finish as runners-up, was the 17-year-old’s last in junior tennis until now.

Professional competition has been Lopatetska’s focus in the intervening period and she claimed three ITF World Tennis Tour titles at W25 level during 2019. She is unseeded at the Roland Garros Junior Championships but qualifies through her professional ranking and has designs on sealing the biggest prize.

“To win this tournament would be amazing and, while the level is really high, I will do everything possible to achieve that,” Lopatetska told itftennis.com.

“I love it here and it is always special to play a Junior Grand Slam. I remember my first, and last, where I had an amazing run to the semi-finals of the US Open [in 2018] and I am just so grateful to be at a Grand Slam again.

“I have been focusing more on professional tournaments but it is nice to be back in this atmosphere and I am appreciating the present. I am hoping there will be some good matches and that it will be a good week for me.”

How sportsmen and women began in their respective disciplines is always a fascinating topic and Kharkiv-born Lopatetska’s origins in tennis are no different. Had it not been for the Lopatetska family doctor, it is debatable whether such conversations about silverware and aspirations would be taking place.

“I had some health issues when I was a child and it was our doctor, who is a great family friend, who suggested I play tennis as it is good for breathing, good for the lungs and good for fitness,” added Lopatetska.

“I went to my home club and nobody wanted to take me because I was only four years old and too small. But thank God they did take me. I remember I played my first tournament when I was eight and I loved that feeling of winning and being first.

“That is what makes me love tennis so much. It is about being the best version of myself and doing the best I can. It’s that which keeps me playing tennis.”

That love of success and topping the podium clearly remains, as three titles in the first few months of 2019 suggests. Lopatetska’s progress was halted, however, by knee surgery in May last year, which saw her miss the best part of seven months.

Tournament victories have been harder to come by in 2020, while the need for regular competitive action was hindered by the postponement of the tennis calendar due to the Covd-19 pandemic. Now back in the groove, Lopatetska is looking to the future.

“I had knee surgery but it is now getting better,” she added. “I am doing everything I can to recover as fast as possible and I am really working hard with my physio. Hopefully I can continue to get better.

“I am really driven. I really love tennis – it is my life. It is something I am passionate about. It is my work and you need to love what you do otherwise it doesn’t make any sense to do it. I am really driven about tennis and I am happy about that.”

For now, the immediate hurdle is the Roland Garros Junior Championships and while overcoming a 13-year-old Junior Grand Slam debutant might not sound much to shout about, this was no ordinary opponent.

Brenda Fruhvirtova has received plenty of attention in recent months and has not been short of plaudits from across the tennis world following a string of impressive performances which have belied her age.

Fruhvirtova’s billing was not lost on Lopatetska and as she plots her pathway to the latter stages of the competition, it was clearly a victory which she hopes will act as a basis for an assault on Junior Grand Slam glory.

“I am really grateful for that first round,” she said. “I know that she is a great player, a prodigy and a young star, so I am really grateful to have that tough opponent in the first round.

“For sure, I am trying to do the best I can at professional level and hopefully I will get the opportunity to play some higher tournaments in the next year or so. But I am really focusing on being here and being healthy.

“I know that health is the most important thing and if you are healthy you can play as well as you can and as well as you want. You need to stay healthy and work as much as you can.”