Paula Badosa got candid after her impressive run at the Cincinnati Open.
The Spaniard reached her first WTA 1000 semi-final in more than two years before crashing out to Jessica Pegula.
After her defeat, she shared an old, private photo of herself crying while dealing with a career-threatening back injury to show how far she’d come.
Badosa has turned things around this summer just months after doctors told her she may never play tennis again. The former world No. 2 ended her 2023 season early with a stress fracture in her back.
But her return this season didn’t go as planned as her back continued to wreak havoc. She resorted to taking cortisol injections to try and extend her playing career but her ranking suffered and she dropped outside of the top 100 in June.
Since then, the 26-year-old has rediscovered her best tennis. She won the WTA 500 title in Washington earlier this month and followed it up by reaching the last four in Cincinnati. She will now re-enter the top 30 and has guaranteed herself a seeded position at the upcoming US Open.
After her Cincinnati Open run ended at the hands of Pegula on Sunday, Badosa took the opportunity to reflect on her journey. She shared a quote to her Instagram story which read: “I watched myself go from the happiest and most outgoing person to fighting every day to heal… So yeah this comeback is personal.”
To demonstrate her gruelling comeback from injury, Badosa then posted a black-and-white photo of herself in tears. “Last summer…” she captioned it, adding a sad face and heartbreak emoji. In the third slide, she highlighted the emotions of her successful North American hard-court summer.
The four-time title winner shared a snap of herself laying on the court in disbelief and wrote: “This summer… giving up is not an option. Let’s keep fighting.” Badosa will be hoping to take her momentum into the US Open, where she has never been beyond the second round.
She is already worlds away from where she was just a few months ago. Back in April, Badosa told WTA Insider just how severe her back injury was. “In Indian Wells, the doctors told me it would be very complicated to continue my career,” she said.
“They said [cortisol injections] 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.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk