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Back from the brink: Badosa ready for Sabalenka semi

  • Simon Cambers

Professional tennis can be a lonely pursuit, a results-orientated business that can be hard to deal with, especially when injuries occur. But sometimes out of the depths of despair comes salvation.

In early 2023, Spain’s Paula Badosa thought her career might be over, a chronic back issue leaving her in pain, crushing her belief, dropping her out of the world’s top 100 and making her doubt herself. 

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But a reunification with her old fitness coach and nutritionist team worked wonders and on Thursday, the 27-year-old former world No.2 will play in her first Grand Slam semifinal, rejuvenated and refreshed, with a new attitude.

“I think it changed me, especially, to appreciate more the moments,” Badosa said after her quarterfinal win over Coco Gauff

“When I win a (big) match… I try to soak it all in. Also, I get emotional because it means a lot for me. I go through a lot. Also, I try to enjoy it after. I think I learned to value a little bit more the moments.”

For the first few years of her career, everything was easy for Badosa. A junior champion at Roland Garros in 2015, she won Indian Wells in 2021 and peaked at No.2 the following April.

But a stress fracture in her back - her L4/L5 vertebrae - in May 2023 began to give her problems and in early 2024, she said doctors had told her she would need regular cortisone injections in her back if she wanted to have a chance of continuing to play on.

It was then that she considered quitting. “It was when I was doing the injections because they told me I had to do max three a year, and I was already on my second one,” she said. “It was the fourth month of the year. I was quite playing like in the limit with that also.

“Especially in the clay court season, it was pretty bad for me and also the back was still hurting. So in that moment I really didn't know what to do. After, in my home tournament in Madrid, it was very tough for me. A mix of back, mentally, and everything. That moment I was thinking maybe I'm not made for being back again. I was doubting a lot.”

Badosa then made a decision that turned her career around, reuniting with the training team she had worked with in 2021. Consulting new doctors, changing her nutrition and doing different exercises, she quickly improved.

Being so close to giving it all up, she said, was a turning point because it gave her a different perspective, one that’s hard to have when you are in a tennis bubble.

“When I was No.2 in the world, everything came very fast,” she said. “Maybe I wasn't managing well the expectations in that moment. I was very scared when I was playing a player that was lower ranked than me, I was, like, ‘oh, what's going to happen if I'm going to lose? What are they going to say?’ I was thinking too much about that.

“Now I don't mind because I can accept, and you can see now the level. You can lose against anybody. You can win against anybody. I think that helped me play more free. When I play more free, I think I play good tennis, and that's when it becomes more consistent.

 

 

“Also, accepting when I'm in a match the good moments from the opponent and trying to deal with it, trying to find solutions. I think at the end, I'm more mature. I'm really proud of what we went through with all my team and how I (fought) through all that, especially mentally.”

Badosa now has the chance to reach a first Grand Slam final, although she will have to get past her good friend, the two-time defending champion, Aryna Sabalenka.

“Aryna’s showing why she's the No.1 in the world right now,” she said. “She's being very consistent, very aggressive. Very intense player. She's always a really tough one to face. I faced her last year but I think I wasn't in the form I am in now. I'm really looking forward for that match.”