Paula Badosa says she was ‘close’ to ending her career in 2024 after stunning Coco Gauff to reach the last four of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
The 11th seed pulled off a surprised 7-5, 6-4, win over the former US Open champion to register her first win over a top-three player at a Grand Slam event. Badosa produced 15 winners and heavily capitalized on Gauff’s costly unforced error count of 41. She also broke the America’s serve in four out of her last six service games.
Coming into the match, Gauff admitted that she was wary about the threat her rival poses, who now leads their head-to-head 4-3. Badosa is only the fourth Spanish woman to reach the last four of a major event in the Open Era and the first to do so at the Australian Open since Garbine Muguruza in 2020.
“I’m really happy to be in the semifinals for the first time,” said Badosa.
“The last slam was very tough for me, losing in the quarterfinals, but I think I learned from that.
“I think I played a great match against Coco.”
The breakthrough comes after a challenging past couple of years for the 27-year-old, who has been hampered by a serious back injury. She suffered a stress fracture which resulted in her facet joints being constantly inflamed and was required to take injections to help deal with the pain. However, she was only allowed to take of maximum of three a year. At its worst, former world No.2 Badosa seriously considered ending her career.
“One point of last year that I was pretty close (to retiring) because I wasn’t seeing myself at the level,” she said.
“The back wasn’t responding well. I didn’t find solutions.
“But I wanted to keep it a last try, a last chance to finish the year and let’s see how it would go. Well, here I am. So I’m really proud of what we went through with all my team and especially how I fight through all that, especially mentally.”
Badosa’s resilience has seen her rise from a ranking of No.100 12 months ago to a current position of 12th. She now has a shot of returning into the top 10 after the tournament ends which would be the first time she has done so since October 2022.
As to what key to her resurgence is, Badosa credits changes she made to last season she made to both her team and her nutritional habits.
“My back started to respond really well with the exercises they were telling me, with the food I had to eat, with the supplements I had to take. Also, I had new doctors. So all that, the puzzle started to look better. I started to play more matches, more matches.” She said.
Badosa will next play either two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She is just two wins away from becoming the first Spanish woman in history to win the Australian Open.
“I will step on the court in the semifinals, I don’t care against who, and I will want to win so badly. That’s part of me.” She states.
“I think when I’m in the final rounds, my level rises, and I just want to give my 100% there and leave it all on the court.”