Fans of Paula Badosa can breathe a little easier this week after the Spaniard provided a positive update following a premature end to her week at the Thailand Open.
Badosa retired in the second round at the WTA 250 event on Wednesday due to a back injury. She was trailing Diana Shnaider 6-2, 3-4 when she called it quits. (She previously escaped 19-year-old wildcard Lanlana Tararudee in a nearly two-hour three-setter in the first round.)
But on Friday, the former world No. 2 posted an encouraging follow-up: She did not re-injure herself playing against Shnaider, which was just her sixth match in the last seven months. The 26-year-old missed the second half of 2023 after retiring from her second-round match at Wimbledon with a back problem, which first started plaguing her in the spring as a stress fracture in her L4 vetebra.
Badosa didn’t give a timeline for her return, but committed herself to another rehab process.
“I’m going to work with my team now 24/7 to get the inflammation down as soon as possible so I can compete soon,” she wrote on X. “We keep fighting.”
Prior to her setback in Hua Hin, Badosa had a strong start to her season. She reached the third round of the Australian Open, beating Taylor Townsend and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, before losing 7-5, 6-4 to the also-returning Amanda Anisimova, who took a mental health hiatus for eight months from last spring.
“My back, it’s healed. I still need time,” Badosa said in Melbourne. “It’s a process to come back, to start to feel at my 100% fit. I’m getting there, but of course, I have been seven months in a couch. Suddenly playing at the highest level, it’s a process that I think it will take time, but I’m ready for it.
“It’s not easy for me … to accept where I am right now, my ranking. I’m pretty proud. I want to get on top as fast as possible. I’m working very hard. I worked very hard in the pre-season, as well. I think in this case, it’s how my body reacts. I hope my back, it’s okay for the next months. I think my level will talk.”
