Paula Badosa has made a sad admission about the length of her WTA career as she thinks she may manage to play for “three, four more years”.
Badosa has struggled significantly with injuries since the start of 2023 and now with a big slump in rankings finds her outside of the top 100 of the WTA ranks. The former World #2’s latest physical setback came in Stuttgart last week when she was left in tears after being forced to retire at 3-3 in the final against her friend and rival Aryna Sabalenka in the R2 of the ATP 500 event.
Thanks to the protected ranking, Badosa is still set to play at the Madrid Open this week where she will get the winner of a qualifier or lucky loser.
Speaking ahead of her home tournament, Badosa while talking to WTA Insider podcast opened up about the use of cortisone injections since Indian Wells. And with the recurring injury issues, she revealed that injection are helpful in managing pain but without permanent solution they can truncate her career.
The Spaniard said: “In Indian Wells, the doctors told me it would be very complicated to continue my career, and I said: ‘Ok, I need a solution, something.’
“We tried these injections of cortisone and they said this is the only option we can give you, and maybe you’ll have to keep doing that if you want to play for a few more years.
“I was like: ‘a few more years, I’m still 26.’ For me that was very tough and I’ll have to handle hard court especially, play less tournaments and all this.
“This is like the first time that I am opening up, so I’m still pretty scared. They said this may work for a few months but we’ll have to check again, so I’m scared I’ll have to stop again.
“It’s all the time chasing this, waking up every morning and the pain it’s there and sometimes I could not handle it, but now I can. At least that’s the positive thing.
“Clay court will be the best for me, grass I think it will be OK also because it’s less impact, but hard courts I will suffer more.”
With the clay season under progress and the grass court season to follow, Badosa may find something to cheer in the coming days.
But with the big part of the season being played on hard courts, the former WTA #2 knows it will be difficult for her to achieve longevity in her career.
Despite admitting she may only hang for a couple of more seasons, the three-time WTA titlist is aiming for a top 10 return.
“I’m treating myself every day,” Badosa added.
“So for me being able to play three, four more years would be amazing, and of course this year to play the full year, and achieve the highest ranking possible.
“I don’t like to put numbers, but I would like to be top 30 and top 10 again would be amazing, but I think top 10 this year is too much after all.
“Maybe in a year or a year and a half I would like to be back there.”