Paula Badosa broke down in tears after an injury forced her to retire from her Dubai first-round match against Lulu Sun as the Spaniard’s bad luck with health continues.
Badosa, a former world No. 2, kicked off her campaign at a WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai on Tuesday. Badosa, who plummeted to No. 74 in the world after missing the majority of the 2023 season, had a favorable Dubai first-round match against world No. 181 Sun but an injury left her unable to play out the entire match.
After Sun won the first set with a 6-4 scoreline, Badosa sat on her bench and started crying. Moments later, Badosa shook Sun’s hand and called it a match.
Badosa’s injury struggles continue
Last year, 26-year-old Badosa experienced one of the most challenging seasons of her career as she appeared in just one tournament in the remainder of 2023 after picking up a stress fracture injury in May. When Badosa launched her comeback in the second week of the 2024 season in Adelaide, she admitted it was “very hard” to be sidelined for a good portion of 2023.
“It was a very slow process. Accepting all this was very hard, especially mentally, because as I always say, I love playing tennis and I love competing. Suddenly, one day I had to stop completely and I had to stay on the couch, so imagine how boring that was,” Badosa said at the start of her comeback in Adelaide.
