Spain’s Paula Badosa admits that she will ‘not be 100 percent’ if she plays at this year’s Wimbledon Championships but her participation is still up in the air.
The former world No.2 has been sidelined from the Tour due to a spinal injury which ruled her out of last month’s French Open. Badosa hasn’t played a match since her quarter-final defeat to Jelena Ostapenko at the Italian Open in May. Earlier in the year, she also suffered an abdominal injury which ruled her out of the Australian Open.
Despite her setbacks, the 25-year-old is hopeful that she will be able to play at Wimbledon which will begin in less than two weeks. Even though she is yet to take to a tennis court. Badosa reached the fourth round of the tournament in 2021 and 2022. It is her second most successful Grand Slam in terms of match wins after Roland Garros.
“The doctors told me a minimum of eight weeks and five have passed. I said that I wanted to get to Wimbledon, but I know that if I get there it won’t be 100% because there’s barely a week and a half left and I haven’t entered a tennis court yet,” Badosa said during an interview with El Larguero.
“I am giving everything I have to recover as soon as possible, I am here with all the doctors looking for solutions and the injury is recovering very quickly, luckily.”
It is unclear when a final decision will be made about Badosa’s Wimbledon appearance. However, she will not play without the approval of her doctors. She is currently ranked 33rd in the world which is 20 places lower than where she was at the start of the season.
“I want to try this weekend to get back on the court to adapt little by little, but we’ll see if everything continues as well and I don’t feel pain,” she said.
“As a player, it is difficult to accept it, but I am trying, I am pushing. It is a tournament that makes me very excited. In the end, I haven’t been able to play any Grand Slam this season and that is mentally hard. The decision will depend on the last word of the doctor.”
Badosa has won three WTA titles so far in her career with the most prestigious of them being at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. However, she has only managed to reach the last eight of a major event once, which was at the 2021 French Open.
Besides her injury struggles, she has also spoken about her relationship with fellow tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas. The couple have only recently gone public about their relationship with Tsitsipas saying that he felt ‘extremely blessed.’
“It is something very beautiful because we empathize with each other a lot,” she said.
“We are both very ambitious, but at the same time we share our personal lives and we share many things. We have a very solid and strong connection, so he shares with me his good and bad times, just like I do with him, so we support each other and give each other a lot of strength.’
“Apart from that, we kind of pushed each other to be better. I was recovering from the injury and he has come here to help me every day in my bad moments.”
The draw for Wimbledon will take place next week at 10 am on June 30.
