French tennis player Oceane Dodin has revealed that she has had a breast enhancement – claiming she is the first active professional to do so.
Dodin, who reached a career high of world No 46 in 2017 and has won £2.1million in career prize money to date, is back playing tennis after a nine-month absence that was originally caused by a long-standing inner ear issue that saw her suffering vertigo.
With the issue having lasted for 10 years, Dodin took a break from the sport to get treatment in December 2024 – which included not playing for three or four months in the summer.
And while she focused on her recovery during this nine-month hiatus, Dodin also decided to undergo breast augmentation – something she had always wanted to do.
Talking to RMC Sport, the 28-year-old said: ‘It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s true that I took advantage of this break because I told myself that since you have to stop about two months after the operation, when you’re in the season, it’s not possible.
So I said to myself “if I’m going to stop for six months, I might as well do what I want”. And then I prefer to do it now than at 40, when I’ll have finished my career.
‘I’m very happy to have done it, I don’t regret it at all and it doesn’t bother me.’
But while Dodin is pleased with the outcome of her surgery, she revealed that it didn’t come without warnings from those around her.
‘Everyone told me: “You’re not going to be able to play”. As if I had put on watermelons (laughs).
‘They’re not small, but that doesn’t bother me when I play. There are adapted bras.
‘Simona Halep [who had a breast reduction while playing as a junior], but they were very, very big. That handicapped her.
‘But yes, it’s true that I must be the first to play with breast augmentations; there has to be a first for everything.’
Dodin was very careful about the operation, asking her surgeon about the best places for the implants that won’t affect her tennis moving forward.
‘He’s a friend, so he knows me very well,’ she said of the surgeon. ‘I talked about it a lot with him, where to put the prosthetics so they wouldn’t bother me, how to wear a bra for support, etc.
‘Those are girly things, but everything was planned. I asked him and he told me it wouldn’t bother me. If he had told me otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it.’
The Frenchwoman is back doing what she loves now and is enjoying a renaissance at the W35 Reims 2025 tennis tournament currently on the ITF circuit.
Seeded No 5 for the tournament in her homeland, she has won her first two matches to set up a quarter-final against No 1 seed Manon Leonard on Friday.
If she is able to win the tournament, that will be 18th title on the ITF circuit – with Dodin having won on the WTA Tour too in the shape of the 2016 Tournoi de Quebec.
Due to her injury hiatus she has a protected ranking, despite being currently world No 363, with her goal to play in the Australian Open qualifiers next year for the first grand slam of the season.
Her first and only appearance in Melbourne so far saw her reach the fourth round in 2024 – her best performance at grand slam.
Aside from that she has reached the second round of the French Open (2017 and 2023) and US Open (2015 and 2017) twice, and lost in the first round at Wimbledon (2017, 2022, 2024) three times.
