Paula Badosa’s Struggles Continue: Battling Injuries to Regain Her Place at the Top of Tennis

Bad fortune seems to befall Paula Badosa. The Spaniard reappeared this Saturday at the WTA 1,000 in Doha after overcoming her latest discomfort, the umpteenth in a few “very hard” months. She did it with character (she was upset on several occasions), power (the dominant tone of the match) and sensations that were getting worse before the rain suspended her match against the American Ashlyn Krueger, a 19-year-old hitter. . Badosa, who attended the tournament thanks to a last-minute invitation, was winning 6-3, 4-6 and 4-2 when the weather forced the suspension of the duel, which will resume this Monday around 12:30 (peninsular time) . Then, the one from Begur will try to recover the tennis that she had found in the third round.

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Before, the game had developed with many ups and downs. Above all, due to Krueger’s casual game, who catapulted madness with up to nine breaks in the first two sets. With a title under her young belt (in Osaka, last year), the American, who is fond of drawing and poetry, accumulated nine winners and 19 unforced errors in the first heat; in the second, which she won, they were seven and 17. Paula’s balances, more controlled (4-8 and 7-9, respectively), showed a better direction. In the second set, in fact, the Spaniard had the match on her racket (she had three break points to go up to 5-4 and serve). She didn’t take advantage of it, but she wasn’t discouraged either. In that third set that she was interrupted, with more varied tennis against the Yankee power, she seemed to have found her way.

A path to find again

You need to find it again. Badosa, 79th in the ranking and in Doha due to a last-minute invitation, returned to the circuit in Adelaide. She had not played since Wimbledon in July, where she withdrew due to her L4 vertebra injury that had already appeared in Rome a month earlier. At the Australian Open, when it seemed like she was leaving her injuries behind for good, she reached the third round. Then, everything went wrong again. In Thailand, at the beginning of the month, she was forced to retire in the round of 16 due to back discomfort that, she assured, had nothing to do with her previous injury. Afterwards, she traveled to Abu Dhabi, but she withdrew before starting the tournament because she was not fully recovered. In Doha, a city where she arrived by private jet accompanied by her mother and her current partner, world number 10 Stefanos Tsitsipas, she wants to definitively recover her routine as a tennis player. This Monday, she will try again.

2024-02-11 20:54:52
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