In Dubai’s warm December breeze, where ambition and nostalgia often meet on the tennis court, few expected to witness a storyline quite like this. For most of 2025, Vera Zvonareva had slipped quietly out of the tennis conversation. Her last appearance came in May 2024, and months have passed with no updates from the former world number 2. Whispers grew louder – had she finally silently walked away from the sport she’s given her life to?

Yet here she was in Dubai, racket in hand, entering the ITF W100 event with nothing more than a wildcard and a fire that many assumed had long dimmed. Zvonareva arrived without a ranking, without expectations, and without the spotlight that once followed her across the biggest stages in tennis. But from the first point she played this week, it became clear

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