In 2023, in her banner season to date, Fruhvirtova soared to become the youngest in the WTA top 50 at age 17.

As the now 21-year-old explained, it certainly hasn’t been all up, up and up since.

So when a return to the Roland-Garros main draw for the first time in three years was secured over Harmony Tan on Friday, emotions were high.

“It means so much, especially here. It's my eighth time here [including juniors] and for the first time I won back-to-back matches – I even won three this time so far,” Fruhvirtova told rolandgarros.com.

“I’m feeling great. It was a mix of everything – exhaustion, happiness, joy. I'm just really happy I was able to close it out in two sets because the heat was super big today compared to the previous days and it was very physical.”

Fruhvirtova’s 6-3, 7-6(4) triumph over the Frenchwoman came amid the added challenge of managing her emotions against Tan’s boisterous home crowd at Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

It was the first time she claimed three straight wins on clay – let alone back-to-back on the surface – since Rouen in April last year, and having qualified for both majors so far in 2026, there is a growing sense she is back on course.

“For sure, it feels closer than maybe a few months ago,” she said. “I can feel that I'm making progress, believing in the work that I put in.

“I'm really glad that the results are showing. Of course, it's not every week, but you know, step by step, I believe that I'm on the right track.”

Injuries – including to her knee at Wimbledon in 2023 –  and subsequent form struggles have led to a rankings dip outside the top 150 as recently as a fortnight ago.

The greatest challenge the Prague-born talent identified was the feeling that her development had regressed.

“You have to play the qualies and just in general, you know, feeling like it slipped through your fingers a little bit,” she said. “You're thinking maybe you could have handled things a little differently, just the general thinking and mindset.

“I think I was a little too hard on myself even when things were really good, but I believe that now, when I get back, I'm going to handle it better because I have the experience.

“It was the first time for me [in 2023], so I didn't really know how to handle it the best way for me, but I believe that I learned so much throughout the years. It's rarely just up, up, up all the time. There are ups and downs for everybody.”

It is easy to overlook that a player who picked up her first tour-level match win five years ago is still only 21.

Fruhvirtova, whose best Slam result remains a fourth round showing at the 2023 Australian Open, is careful to remind herself as much.

“When you already get the feeling of what it’s like being top 50, being in Grand Slams and everything, that is I think the hardest part, to kind of leave the past in the past and just think what's ahead because you cannot get the time back,” she said.

“I'm enjoying it. I'm really young still, so it's not like I'm at the end of my career. It's going to be so, so hard getting back, but I'm still at the start. I think many people never even get to top 50 in their career.

"That's what I keep reminding myself, that when you’ve already been there, you can return there again.”

In other final-round women’s qualifying matches, American Claire Liu swept into her third Roland-Garros main draw, while Lucia Bronzetti booked a return to her fifth straight.

Spaniards Marina Bassols Ribera and Kaitlin Quevedo landed their respective Roland-Garros main-draw debuts, while Swiss Susan Bandecchi qualified for her maiden Grand Slam event.

Slovak former world No.33 Rebecca Sramkova advanced to her fourth Paris main draw in five years.