Navigating Injuries, Paula Badosa Sets Out to Reclimb Mountain
2021 CHARLESTON SEMIFINALIST OPENS UP ON ‘INNER BATTLE’
Paula Badosa hasn’t had an easy go of it.
Her ascendance once seemed so clear: Her breakthrough at Indian Wells in 2021, a WTA Most Improved Player of the Year nod, her push to No. 2 in the PIF WTA Rankings in 2022. The future seemed limitless, rolling out before her like some gilded red carpet. But the popular Spaniard would soon experience a career-threatening stress fracture in her back, something that required repeated cortisone shots and ongoing pain management. It’s something that’s dogged her ever since, limiting her play and often leaving her questioning her career choice.
A hip injury suffered in 2025, since diagnosed as a torn labrum, has only made things more challenging. Facing doubt — both, she says, from within and without — the 28-year-old recently turned to social media to vent her frustrations.
Fear, f–king fear. How brutal it is. Sometimes I feel like I can’t control the voices inside me…The emotions are too much, and I find myself overwhelmed. Doubts take hold of me, and I feel lost in a sea of emotions.
“I think we all have, like, two voices in our head,” said the wildcard Badosa on Monday at the Credit One Charleston Open, ahead of her opener against American qualifier Kayla Day. “Sometimes you can control the negative a bit better, and then there’s other moments in your life when you cannot. Personally, it’s been very tough, the last year since I got injured.”
Paula Badosa and Maria Sakkari on the practice court.
“Of course, other people are always going to doubt on you when things don’t go how they’re supposed to, to what the expectations are. I already know that. What hurts me the most is when I doubt myself. That’s the place I am now, doubting everything, about my body, my tennis.”
A 7-8 mark at the tour level in 2026 has seen her slide outside the Top 100. A deep run on the green clay of Charleston, where she has reached the quarterfinals or better on three occasions, highlighted by a semifinal showing in that breakout year of 2021, would do wonders for her self-belief.
“When I started the year, it was tough to control my mind, my thoughts, and I was being very tough on myself,” she said. “I still am, in a way, because it’s like I want to recover the time I lost. That’s bringing me a bit of anxiety, maybe not accepting where I am right now in the rankings. I’m not really used to being in the place I am now. That’s the mental battle, the inner battle I have with myself. I’m trying to deal with it, seeing it with perspective and patience.”
“I know what it is to come back from an injury from zero, and it’s like a mountain sometimes. To get back to the level I want to get to, it’s difficult.” — Paul Badosa
The good news is, Badosa has never been one to shy away from the mental work.
“I love to work on my brain, my mind, because I think it’s another muscle,” she explained. “It’s one of the muscles that doesn’t stop. It’s the only one. Other ones, you can recover, you can shut them down, but this one you cannot. For me, it’s very important — the most important. I do it not just because I play tennis for my professional life; I do it for my mental health and my personal life also. I was out a lot last year, so I’ve been working on it daily. I’m doing more meditation every morning.”
So how often does she think about putting her racquet down for good?
“Every day,” she confided. “Every day, I’m thinking about it, but then there’s something that’s even stronger and more powerful: That I still have faith, and I still believe in myself. I have it deep down, and I love the sport too much. I have so much passion for the sport, and I notice it every time I step on a court to compete. I get goosebumps, no matter where I play. I just love those moments.”
Lucky for us, she isn’t done. There’s another mountain to be climbed, after all.
