Listening to Paula Badosa speak on the WTA Insider podcast in April, her physical health outlook did not sound promising.
"In Indian Wells, the doctors told me it would be very complicated to continue my career," revealed the Spaniard, whose 2023 season was decimated by a stress fracture in her back.
"They said this [regular cortisone shots] is the only option we can give you and maybe you will have to keep doing that if you want to play for a few more years. I said, 'A few more years? I'm still 26.’ For me that was very tough.
"So far, the injections are working. The pain is always there, but there were times I couldn't even handle it."
Prior to her back troubles, Badosa was soaring.
She reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros in 2021, and later that season won the biggest title of her career at Indian Wells. In April 2022, she peaked at world No.2, and was one of the WTA’s most exciting ascendant stars.
Yet in May this year, her inactivity, coupled with a lack of consistent wins when she was healthy enough to compete, saw her ranking plummet outside the top 100.
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An oft-repeated saying among those in the tennis world, which we shall paraphrase, goes: “Things can change so quickly in this sport”.
And that’s been true for Badosa, who has morphed into one of the in-form players of the North American summer.
On Wednesday at the US Open, she overcame dangerous American lefty Taylor Townsend 6-3 7-5, progressing to the third round of the tournament for the first time.
Her draw has opened up – instead of an expected third-round showdown with eighth seed Barbora Krejcikova, she faces Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who stunned the reigning Wimbledon champion in straight sets.
Badosa has now won 12 of her past 14 hard-court matches. She triumphed at the 500-level tournament in Washington DC – her first WTA title in two-and-a-half years – then advanced to the semifinals of the Cincinnati 1000 event, pushing in-form Jessica Pegula to three sets.
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With her run in New York, she has reached at least the third-round stage at all four majors in 2024, the first time she has managed this feat in her career.
From a low of world No.140 in late May, Badosa has surged back inside the top 30, earning the 26th seeding at Flushing Meadows.
It seemed she turned a significant corner at Wimbledon with her fourth-round run, the deepest she had progressed at a Slam in two years.
“It's not my first time in a second week, but I think it's the most special one,” she said at the time.
“Last year here I had to retire. Then it took me 10 months. I was on the couch and watching the tournaments from home.
“I've always been very tough mentally and a fighter… I'm very proud that I've been through all of this. When I came back at the beginning of the year and struggling so much, my level wasn't there. I feel myself so far away. Now seeing myself back at it, it means a lot.
“At the end of the bottom of my heart, I wasn't accepting [what the doctors said]. I was, like, ‘I'm going to continue no matter what’. Of course, there are some moments that there's pain, and you don't really know what to do and you a feel a little bit lost.
“But I didn't care. I remember telling to my team that I was going to play with pain [laughter].
“There are some days that I feel it worse than others, but it's manageable. I'm controlling a lot the tournaments I'm playing, the days I'm practicing. I love to go to the gym, I love to work hard, but there are some days that I can't.
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“Maybe I take more days off than I would like to, but it's the only way.”
Badosa, born in New York, revealed on court that it was at match point when she allowed herself to contemplate the prospect of finally achieving a career-best US Open result.
Now that she has, she’s put herself in a position to go even further, and continue her rise.