Back injury forces Paula Badosa out of Madrid Open
MADRID -- Citing a lingering lower back injury, Paula Badosa
The Spanish favorite’s spot in the main draw was taken by lucky loser Cristina Bucsa
The move was not unexpected, as Badosa acknowledged before the tournament began that she wasn’t 100 percent. While Badosa made her appointed rounds with reporters and camera crews the same question persisted: How is her back feeling, the injury that has plagued her for nearly two years now?
“My back is good, slowly getting better,” she told wtatennis.com. “It’s been a tough injury, honestly, this one because it was totally different from the last one. It was an injury that was touching the nerves, so I was constantly having pain.
“My normal life was a disaster, honestly -- I couldn’t even move from the couch.”
Three years ago, she ascended to her career-high ranking, No. 2, but in 2023 a back injury forced her to miss the last five months of the season. Gradually, her game came together in 2024. Badosa won the Mubadala Citi D.C. Open, progressed to the semifinals in Cincinnati, the quarterfinals at the US Open and the semifinals in Beijing.
She finished the season on the cusp of the Top 10 and a semifinals berth at this year’s Australian Open brought her back into that elite corps. Since then, it’s been difficult. Badosa retired from her second match in Merida, Mexico, skipped Indian Wells and, citing her back, granted a Round of 16 walkover in Miami.
As recently as a few weeks ago, Badosa said, there was intense pain even in a stationary position.
“But I was lucky that the treatment, the injections that I had to do a few have worked,” Badosa said. “So, slowly getting back there, yeah.”
Is she 50 percent, 75 percent?
“I don’t know,” Badosa said. “Slowly, step by step, every day I’m feeling a bit better. Hopefully I will be my 100 percent soon. Not right now, but soon.”
