MELBOURNE
– Paula Badosa ‘s life took a 180-degree turn: from excruciating pain in her back and the thought of retirement, to breaking through to the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time. It happened on Tuesday in Melbourne, when she beat American Coco Gauff, third in the world ranking, in the Australian Open.
‘A year ago I did not know whether to retire from the sport, now I’m here playing against the best in the world,’ confessed the Spaniard, 12th in the WTA rankings, on the court of the Rod Laver Arena, just minutes after securing her ticket to the round of the top four of the first Grand Slam of the year. An instance hitherto unknown to her.
It is not only a reward for a dream week, where she has lost only one set and won her first victory against a Top 10 player in a Grand Slam. It is also a reward for resilience. Over the past few seasons, the Spaniard suffered constant injuries and mental health problems, dropping to 140th in the world in May 2024. That was precisely when she thought about hanging up her racket.
‘I was very close because I didn’t see myself at the level I was at. My back wasn’t responding well, I couldn’t find solutions, but I wanted one last try, to finish the year and see how it went,’ he admitted on Tuesday in Melbourne. The moment of more doubts was in the Masters 1000 in Madrid, at home and where she lost in the first round against the also Spanish Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro, 27 of the world at that time.
How does one go from that to being a Grand Slam semi-finalist? Badosa has the answer: ‘After Madrid I made changes in my team, my nutritionist, my physical trainer and everything connected with my back. I went back to work with people I was with in 2021 and they gave me different advice that I didn’t have at that time’.
Paula Badosa also mentioned a new diet, new doctors and a confidence that grew the more games he played.

Now it’s all back on track. The former world number two has shown her best version at a Grand Slam and inevitably looks forward to being that player everyone imagined after her Indian Wells title in 2020.
‘When I was world number two everything came too fast. Maybe I didn’t know how to manage the expectations at that time. I was very scared when I played against lower-ranked players because I thought ‘what will happen if I lose, what will they say’. Now I don’t care about that anymore. You can lose to anyone and you can beat anyone, I think it helped me to play more freely,’ she admitted.
This Thursday she will return to Rod Laver Arena with the illusion intact to reach his first Grand Slam final and be one step away from being the first Spanish woman to lift the title in Melbourne. She will do it free, with no doubts and with the best tennis of her career.