TO HELL AND BACK, BADOSA MOVES INTO SECOND WEEK

Like Andre Agassi in the late-90’s, Paula Badosa has worked her way back into relevance after dropping as low as No. 139 in the rankings. 

Due to face Serbian Olga Danilovic in the fourth round on Sunday at the Australian Open after a tough three-set win over Marta Kostyuk, Badosa was ranked as high as No.2 in the world in 2022, before the tennis gods revealed they had other plans.

First, Badosa suffered a few untimely injury niggles that resulted in both withdrawals and early losses, but it was the spinal stress fracture she suffered while playing Ons Jabeur at the Italian Open in May that would turn her career on its head. 

Though she won that match, and the subsequent two against Marta Kostyuk and Karolina Muchova, her initial diagnosis was that she’d need to miss up to 12 weeks of competitive tennis. 

Trying her luck, Badosa returned in half that time at the All England Club for the Wimbledon Championships.  

It didn’t work. The Madrid native won her first-round match before withdrawing in pain mid-way through her second-round encounter.  

She tried to return to the court during the North American swing but was ultimately unable to manage the pain, shutting down her season altogether after the US Open. 

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Starting her comeback in 2024, the gods further demonstrated their cruelty as Badosa’s scans revealed it was time to face her tennis mortality as she became dependent on cortisone shots to compete. 

“In Indian Wells, the doctors told me it would be very complicated to continue my career,” Badosa told the WTA Insider Podcast. 

“They said this is the only option we can give you and maybe you will have to keep doing that if you want to play a few more years.

“I said, ‘A few more years? I’m still 26.’ For me, that was very tough”.

Having digested and followed her doctor’s orders, Badosa, who by this point was outside the top 100, got back to business and the wins started to come. 

A fourth-round appearance in Rome was followed by third-round appearances at Roland Garros and Bad Homburg. 

Finally trending in the right direction with confidence in her body starting to grow, Badosa won her fourth career title at the WTA500 in Washington - electing to play the event over the Olympics due to the injury risk of changing surfaces - and returned to the world’s top 50. 

Not done there, Badosa, whose struggles with injury and mental health were documented on Netflix’s Break Point, stormed home to finish the year with a quarter-final appearance at the US Open and three semi-finals at Cinncinati, Beijing, and the WTA500 in Ningbo, China.

Such was her return to form, Badosa, who finished the year ranked No. 12, was anointed the WTA’s Comeback Player of the Year. 

Importantly for Badosa, who could enter the top 10 with a win over Danilovic on Sunday, her back is holding up under the duress of Grand Slam tennis. 

“I feel good,” she told the press when asked how she feels physically. 

“I think that I did a lot of work. Sometimes the back worries me a bit, but [it] is responding, like, perfect.

“I work a lot on the physical part [of my game]. I'm in the gym all day. 

“So my body is used to it. I usually play more than two hours every match. So my body is used to that, and it's ready for what it brings me.”

Should this resurgent Badosa defeat Danilovic, she would face either returning mother Belinda Bencic or 2023 US Open Champion and third-seed, Coco Gauff, for a place in her first Australian Open quarter-final.

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