When Misfortune Strikes: Paula Badosa’s Painful Exit from Wimbledon

Badosa, during the match against Kosiuk.Alberto Pezzali (AP)

This latest foray of Paula Badosa at Wimbledon ends quickly and badly, with pain. After 36 minutes rowing against the current, aware that the chances of overcoming the Ukrainian Marta Kostiuk are nil, the Spanish turned to the chair umpire and resigned. 6-2 and 1-0 down, she closes this attempt to which she has put so much desire and so much faith; excessive, seen with hindsight. After suffering a vertebral fracture in Rome in mid-May, she cut deadlines to get to London and the planned 8-12 weeks off was reduced to just six. Nature, wise, reacts and the body suffers again.

“Yes, I would risk it again,” he replies to this newspaper. “In the end there were many factors why I wanted to play here at Wimbledon. in the first game [contra Alison Riske] I felt good and, well, it’s part of the process. Sometimes you resent it and now I have to see what I do in the coming weeks ”, the Catalan prolongs, annoyed when one of the reporters reminds her that throughout her career she has retired in 30 games. “That was a bit too much…”, she says annoyed, angry because this season things are not going well for her and her physical problems hit her every time she raises her head a little.

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“I haven’t had much luck. First the break [de casi cuatro centímetros, en el muslo derecho] at the beginning of the year; then I was recovering and I suffered the fracture [vertebral] for stress. Maybe I’ve rushed a bit, but it’s totally my decision, the responsibility is mine. Now I have to do tests to find out how long it will take me to recover ”, continues the tennis player, who at the premiere on Wednesday had not offered worrying signs, but on Thursday she noticed pain again, accentuated during the clash with Kostiuk. Immediately, she realizes that there is no spark, there is no punch and, above all, there is no mobility.

In the scarce half hour that he competes, he signs 20 unforced errors and only defends 39% of his first services. The rival, whom he had defeated in the three previous confrontations between the two, overwhelms him and accesses the third round. He wants Badosa, but his body won’t let him. “It is a very delicate and very slow injury,” he says. “I have not just been one hundred percent, but it is something that I cannot control much. Little can I do, it’s something of the bone. What depends on me, the recoveries, I’m doing well. I try to do my best ”, he resigns himself, now pending the North American summer tour.

Stronger, more injuries

On the WTA circuit, the player from Begur has 11 withdrawals in the middle of a pulse. Two of them have taken place in a Grand Slam, adding this last one in London to which she was forced at Roland Garros last year; she had to leave four times before finishing the game in 2022. In recent times, her body has been suffering frequently and conditioning her game, which depends to a large extent on the power with which she is capable of hit the ball. Tall (she’s 1.80) and with a considerable frame, the two-year-old here has noticeably transformed her body through many hours in the gym. She is stronger, more fibrous, but paradoxically her mishaps are recurring.

Present the last two editions in the round of 16, this time the poster falls early and the female representation loses its last bullet; For the first time since 2014, there will be no Spanish in the third leg of the tournament. Of course, Badosa will not compete in the mixed doubles with his partner, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, whom he supported the previous evening from the stands. “I had given everything to be here,” she laments. “Like I said, I tried to push, and it hurts a little more because I looked in good shape,” she adds. She has been champion for two courses in Indian Wells and number two in the world a little over a year ago, today she is the 35th and tries to rebel against misfortune. She did not play in Australia, nor in Paris and from Wimbledon she leaves hurt.

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2023-07-07 13:06:20
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