Paula Badosa has seemingly avoided a serious injury as the Spanish tennis star picked up “a small rupture in the adductor” but now she is in the race against time to be fit for the Madrid Open.
This week, Badosa suffered another very heartbreaking and crushing moment on the court after an injury once again derailed a tournament for her and forced a mid-match retirement. Against world No. 2 Paula Sabalenka in the round-of-16, Badosa was playing great tennis and there wasn’t much separating the two.
Early in the third set, Badosa was even up by a break against Sabalenka and just a few games away from clinching her biggest win over the last year. But then, Badosa took a medical timeout and retired at 6-7 (4) 6-4 3-3 – a left thigh injury was listed as the reason.
Badosa, who has had very bad and brutal luck with injuries over the last year, is now in danger of missing one of her favorite tournaments – the Madrid Open – which starts on Tuesday, April 23rd.
“Hi everyone first of all thank you for all the support received. These are not easy times for me. Today’s medical tests showed a small rupture in the adductor. Let’s work with all my team so we can play in Madrid. You know how special it is for me to play at home in front of all of you. I will try everything to get on that court and enjoy it all together again,” Badosa wrote in a message posted on her Instagram Story.
Paula Badosa © Getty Images Sport – Elsa
Badosa started sobbing and Sabalenka reacted as a good friend would
Since Sabalenka and Badosa are best friends, the Belarusian tennis star knows very well how tough and difficult the past year has been for the Spaniard. But after seeing live how it looks when Badosa is forced to retire from a match and seeing her best friend sobbing, Sabalenka had a crushed look on her face and she reacted by giving her best friend a very tight hug and sharing some words of encouragement.
“Yeah, I’m actually about to cry right now, honestly. I don’t know. Feel so bad for her. And I love this girl and I feel really, I just, I don’t know, I don’t have any emotions right now. I’m not happy. I’m not sad,” Sabalenka said moments after seeing how her match against Badosa ended.
Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa © Getty Images Sport – Al Bello
What Stefanos Tsitsipas said about Badosa’s injuries just a few days ago?
Tsitsipas, who has been officially dating Badosa since June, gave some insight into his girlfriend’s injury struggles just a couple of days ago.
According to Tsitsipas, the first issue was that the back injury Badosa sustained last May in Rome ended up being more severe than initially expected. After Rome, Badosa managed to only play Wimbledon in the remainder of the year and that seemed like a forced participation as the Spaniard was forced to retire from her second-round match.
Tsitsipas, who also dealt with a back injury in the past, reveals that Badosa sustained an issue in the same part of the back but that her injury was more severe than his.
“Paula has had a very bad injury in her back. People do not understand the difficult times that she has gone through. It’s quite unbelievable that I kind of followed her footsteps of the injury – had a very similar injury. Mine came about five months later, right on the same spot where she had it,” Tsitsipas said on Tennis Channel just a couple of days ago.
“She did have it much more severe than I did. And to go through these difficulties and to see her suffer so much made me suffer even more myself, you know, being in a similar situation months later.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa © Getty Images Sport – Matthew Stockman
After explaining how hard the past year was for Badosa, Tsitsipas sounded more optimistic about the entire situation, saying that his girlfriend was regaining fitness and targeting to return to the top of tennis.
“Now I feel like her fitness is back. I feel like she’s building up her game again. I have no reason (not) to believe that she’s gonna be not just at the same level as she was before, but even better,” Tsitsipas said.
“The hunger is there. She hasn’t been playing a lot and I have never seen Paula more hungry and more determined to get out on the court and do big things.”
But just after Tsitsipas said that Badosa’s condition was improving, the former Spanish world No. 2 suffered another injury blow and saw a promising Stuttgart campaign come to an end early.
It remains to be seen if Badosa will be fit enough to resume action in Madrid and make her sixth main draw appearance at the tournament next week.
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