Paula Badosa has almost ceased to know peace since 2023. After a fateful day that same year turned devastating, the Spanish pro has done everything she could to recover. However, time and again, her efforts only turned futile—the latest instance of which we saw at the ongoing Berlin Open. Amidst the intense scrutiny and pressure to keep up, the star even found herself crumbling in front of the world.

It all started during the quarterfinals vs Wang Xinyu on Friday, where the former World No. 2 was forced to take a medical timeout at the end of the first set after losing 1-6. Playing just three more points, Badosa decided she’d withdraw. The reason? The same lingering back issue that has haunted her for the last two years. For the unversed: During a second-round Italian Open match vs Ons Jabeur in May 2023, the 27-year-old had suffered a stress fracture in her L4/L5 vertebrae. A few weeks later, she was forced to miss the French Open. Despite an 8-12 week recovery time, she was again forced to retire after a second-round match vs Marta Kostyuk at Wimbledon. Then, in July, she tried to return again. However, just three days before a US Open first-round match vs Venus Williams, fate left her side again—she ended her season prematurely.

Over the years since then, Badosa has had to step out of at least six tournaments, and missed three of the last five Grand Slams. At one point last year, she even dropped as low as No. 140 in World Rankings, indicating that the suffering was much more than she was letting on. What’s worse? The tennis star admitted how she’d take cortisone injections just to help her prolong her career a bit more. “I was doing the injections because they told me I had to do max three a year, and I was already on my second one. It was the fourth month of the year. I was quite playing like in the limit with that also,” the player admitted talking about considering quitting.

This year, too, the 2021 Indian Wells Masters champion has already retired midway from four tournaments, in addition to pre-tournament withdrawals from the Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome Open. Already headed toward an unwanted, premature retirement, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the constant pain on and off the court has finally caught up with the Spanish player. Taking to X on June 19, she wrote, “I’m so tired of this. ❤️‍🩹,” shortly after the Berlin debacle. Even on the court, the Spaniard appeared angry as she smashed her racket on the court multiple times before throwing it away.

Notably, this comes around a year after Badosa had revealed how her career was not going to be too long. Talking to WTA Insider in April 2024, she had revealed, “In Indian Wells, the doctors told me it would be very complicated to continue my career. They said [cortison injections are] 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, but now I can. At least that’s the positive thing.”

Nonetheless, Paula Badosa has still continues to work on her game enough to evolve it for the grass courts. She is confident about a good showing on this surface and shared her experience about the lessons learned from the past.

Paula Badosa’s strategy for her grass-court game

The Spaniard’s favorite surface is clay, coming predominantly from her native country. Growing up, she used to play in clay court tournaments and developed her game effectively for that surface. On the other hand, the grass surface didn’t come naturally to her. But she was not one to give up.

During an interview, she opened up about playing on grass courts, saying, “During the years, I learned on grass that you have to go for it. They’re not gonna give it to you. Being more aggressive with the first shots. Maybe in the past years, I wasn’t [aggressive enough], especially with the returns. I’m adjusting and adding some smaller things on this surface.”

Meanwhile, Paula Badosa would look to recover from her untimely injury setback and come back fit for the Wimbledon Championships. With not many days left for the major tournament, she faces a race against time to regain her health.