Playing her home tournament in Madrid last April, Paula Badosa had just lost a brutal three-set match to qualifier Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. It was her ninth loss in 15 matches, the stress fracture in her back wasn’t healing and the injections weren’t helping.

Huddling with her team, Badosa wondered aloud if it was time to quit tennis.

“Physically and mentally, I was in a very dark place,” she said Saturday in an interview with wtatennis.com. “Being in a very sad moment. I remember not even wanting to go even out of the room.”

That was eight months ago. We now know that, figuratively, Badosa walked out of that room. After a lot of healing -- physically and mentally -- she regained her game. She was voted the 2024 WTA Comeback Player of the Year.

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Badosa is the No. 2 seed at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, where play opens Monday, and back in the Hologic WTA Tour Top 10. World No. 5 Elena Rybakina is the top seed. After a first-round bye, Badosa will play the winner of Magdalena Frech versus Linda Noskova. She’s coming off a career-best semifinals run at the Australian Open.

The internal conversation last year that turned it around:

“Let’s see what happens if I give it 100 percent, Paula, try to get the strength from anywhere to find that power and energy again. Try to finish the year and see how you finish there and from there we can take a decision.”

Badosa paused after recounting that moment at the precipice.

“Even when you’re in a dark moment,” she said, “you never stop believing -- and that’s what brought me where I am today.”

Badosa credits her coach, Pol Toledo, with encouraging her 24-7, for believing in her even when she didn’t believe in herself.

As the pain in her back began to recede, she began to win matches. Badosa reached the fourth round in Rome -- beating Mirra Andreeva, Diana Shnaider and Emma Navarro in the process before falling to Coco Gauff.

A third round at Roland Garros and a fourth round at Wimbledon were the precursors to a title at the Mubadala Citi Open in Washington, D.C., the semifinals in Cincinnati, the quarterfinals of the US Open and the semifinals in Beijing.

Badosa won the first set of that last match in Beijing and was up a break in the second, but Coco Gauff came back to beat her in three. Less than two weeks ago, when Badosa took the first set of their quarterfinal match at the Australian Open, that collapse entered her mind.

And then she went on to close the deal against Gauff, 7-5, 6-4, progressing to the final four at a Slam for the first time. It was, Badosa said, the second-biggest match win of her career, after her third-set tiebreak victory over Victoria Azarenka in the 2021 Indian Wells final.

“That Beijing match against Coco was very painful,” Badosa said. “The last thing I wanted to do was struggle again mentally. Managing that match the way I did, I had all the emotions going through my mind.

“Getting through that, and the level I did it, I was really proud. I’m really motivated after that. Hopefully, soon I can be in that place again to experience that experience again.”

Paula Badosa

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Badosa lost to her best friend on tour, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, in the semifinals.

“I think one of the keys is for her not to play like she did the other day,” Badosa said, laughing. “If she plays a little bit worse, then I think we’ll have some chances. No, jokes aside, she played amazing that day, credit to her. I’m always looking forward to playing matches against the best players, Aryna, Iga, Coco and challenging myself against the best players in the world.”

At 27, Badosa is part of the recent phenomenon that has seen players in their late 20s (Jessica Pegula, Jasmine Paolini, Danielle Collins) displaying their best tennis. Badosa says she feels better in every respect than when she was 22, still with room for improvement.

Despite her success in Melbourne, her goals for 2025 haven’t changed. She wants to finish in the Top 8 and qualify for the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

“It was a little bit painful last year being so close, but of course I couldn’t ask for more,” Badosa said. “I started winning matches after six months, started a little bit late. So hopefully this year I can react a little bit sooner and I’m able to go to Riyadh.

“After all my struggles, especially the past years, being back in Top 10, being back at this level makes me realize that I’m much stronger than I thought.”