Still managing back pain, Badosa hopeful for Madrid success
MADRID -- After the Olympics, the annual Laureus World Sports Awards might feature the greatest gathering of global athletes. On Monday evening in Madrid, they were on display as Novak Djokovic presented the World Sportsman of the Year award to Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis.
Also in attendance from the tennis arena: Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz -- as well as Paula Badosa and boyfriend Stefanos Tsitsipas. They were a striking pair in white, creating a stir and producing arresting images quickly shared around the world. It was their first gala together and they were both thrilled to be there.
On Tuesday, Badosa -- the great Spanish hope at No. 9 in the PIF WTA Rankings -- met the media at the Mutua Madrid Open. It’s one thing to walk the red carpet and listen to speeches, but the physical demands of tennis, especially on clay, are quite another thing altogether.
As Badosa made her appointed rounds with reporters and camera crews the same question persisted: How is her back feeling, the injury that has plagued her for nearly two years now?
“My back is good, slowly getting better,” she told wtatennis.com. “It’s been a tough injury, honestly, this one because it was totally different from the last one. It was an injury that was touching the nerves, so I was constantly having pain.
“My normal life was a disaster, honestly -- I couldn’t even move from the couch.”
No one Spanish woman has advanced further than Badosa’s semifinal appearance here in 2021, but the past three years have produced a disappointing 3-3 record.
Three years ago, she ascended to her career-high ranking, No. 2, but in 2023, a back injury forced her to miss the last five months of the season. Gradually, her game came together in 2024. Badosa won the Mubadala Citi D.C. Open, progressed to the semifinals in Cincinnati, the quarterfinals at the US Open and the semifinals in Beijing.
She finished the season on the cusp of the Top 10 and a semifinals berth at this year’s Australian Open brought her back into that elite corps. Since then, it’s been difficult. Badosa retired from her second match in Merida, Mexico, skipped Indian Wells and, citing her back, granted a Round of 16 walkover in Miami.
As recently as a few weeks ago, Badosa said, there was intense pain even in a stationary position.
“But I was lucky that the treatment, the injections that I had to do a few have worked,” Badosa said. “So, slowly getting back there, yeah.”
The No. 9 seed said she would line up for her first match here on Friday and, if all goes perfectly, be fit enough to weather the physical load of the six matches necessary to win the title. After a bye, she’ll play a Kudermetova -- either Veronika or sister Polina -- in a second-round match.
Is she 50 percent, 75 percent?
“I don’t know,” Badosa said. “Slowly, step by step, every day I’m feeling a bit better. Hopefully I will be my 100 percent soon. Not right now, but soon.”
