MADRID – Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has vowed to “keep fighting” for her career, despite doctors telling her it would be complicated to continue playing professional tennis due to a stress fracture she suffered in her back in 2023.
The Spaniard was told she might have to manage her pain using cortisone shots in order to compete, and admits she has had many low moments as she tries to come to terms with the medical advice she is being given.
“I cried a lot and I’m still crying sometimes when I hear that, and when I have talks with the doctors,” the 26-year-old said at the Madrid Open on April 23 ahead of her first-round match.
“But at the same time, I have this personality, this character that it’s like... ‘I will still get through it, I will still keep fighting’. I’m like that, I’m a little bit stubborn. But I think maybe that in this case can help.”
Besides consulting with doctors, Badosa has turned to many of her colleagues – including Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Bianca Andreescu – who had suffered similar injuries, seeking encouragement.
“Sometimes you just don’t want to accept what the doctor says and you’re like... ‘For sure they’re making a mistake’. I just try to stay positive,” Badosa added.
“There are some days that I wake up and I’m not feeling that well and I ask myself, ‘Is this worth it?’.”
Badosa, who did not play in 2023 after exiting Wimbledon in July due to the injury, was forced to retire from her second-round clash with best friend Aryna Sabalenka in Stuttgart on April 18 with a minor adductor tear.
But she had pushed the world No. 2 before that moment, with the players level in a deciding set.
“It’s the level that you want to be at, that fighter again. So even though I didn’t win in that moment, for moments like that I will keep fighting,” Badosa said.
She is undergoing four hours of treatment every day to be ready for the action in Madrid. On April 24, she fell to compatriot Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Chinese world No. 8 Zheng Qinwen also revealed she suffered a leg injury in Stuttgart and is hoping she recovers in time for her opener against Yulia Putintseva on April 25.
Zheng enjoys competing on clay, thanks to her years of training in Spain, where she developed a heavy topspin on the red dirt.
Her first breakthrough at the Grand Slams came at Roland Garros, where she made the fourth round in 2022, and the 21-year-old will have many eyes on her at the French Open in May after reaching this season’s Australian Open final.
“I’m always excited when the clay season is coming but I don’t want to be overexcited, because when you get overexcited, the injury comes. Maybe that’s why (I got injured),” she said.
Defending champion Sabalenka, meanwhile, believes she has to step up her game in order to get back into the “Big Three” conversation, alongside her main tour rivals Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina.
Sabalenka has won back-to-back matches just once since she retained her Australian Open title in January. Swiatek has picked up two WTA 1000 titles in Doha and Indian Wells within that period, while Rybakina has lifted trophies in Abu Dhabi and Stuttgart.
“I feel like I kind of dropped my level a little bit. I feel like it’s been a ‘Big Two’ in the last month,” confessed Sabalenka.
The Belarusian feels she has proven to be a force on clay and is ready for the tour’s most demanding surface when she starts her Madrid Open campaign on April 25.
“I’ll be there and I’ll be fighting for every point and if I have an opportunity, I’m sure I’m going to take it,” she said.
Naomi Osaka, another multiple Major champion battling to find form, took a step in the right direction on April 24. The former world No. 1 beat Belgium’s Greet Minnen 6-4, 6-1 in one of her most dominating performances since returning to tour after a maternity break. AFP
