After finishing 2025 at a career-high world No. 12, the 23-year-old Danish tennis player has slid down to No. 21 in the WTA Official Rankings.
Tauson has been dealing with persistent back pain for more than six months. This forced her to withdraw or retire midway through matches in high-profile tournaments, including consecutive exits at the Miami Open (against Katie Boulter) and the Italian Open in Rome (against Oleksandra Oliynykova). She also had to skip the Stuttgart Open entirely.
Her win-loss record for 2026 stands at a subpar 8–9. She has heavily lacked match rhythm, and just this week finished her first full singles match in two full months.
Now, Clara Tauson has opened up about the nature of the back pain, which continues to peg her back in her struggle to recover her previous form. "I have two herniated discs in my back. It's chronic, you could say, and you have to train yourself out of it, but it's not always that easy when you have to play a lot of tournaments and go to the gym a lot", says Clara Tauson to Eurosport.dk
"That's what I've suffered from for some time, but I feel like I've come out on the other side mentally. I'm ready to give it a shot, even though I have the problems I have now."
Clara Tauson will face Ukraine's Daria Snigur in the first round of the 2026 French Open. 21st seed. If she advances past Snigur, she will face either Sofia Kenin or Peyton Stearns in the second round, with a potential third-round matchup looming against 11th seed Belinda Bencic