The ordeal of injuries continues for Paula Badosa in 2023. The Spanish player, number 45 in the WTA ranking, confirmed at dawn on her social networks that she would not play this week in the WTA tournament in Canada, which is played in Montreal. Badosa suffers from his back injury suffered in May during the Rome tournament; a stress fracture in the L4 vertebra that would keep her off the slopes for eight to 12 weeks. He could not play Roland Garros but was forced to be at Wimbledon, where he had to retire in the second round because of his battered back.
“I keep trying everything to get back, but my body is not ready yet. The pain is still there. It’s a slow process. I will be a few more weeks to return to the competition. These are very difficult times. Thank you all,” wrote on her Instagram account a Paula Badosa who has barely been able to compete this season. First, it was in Australia when on the eve of starting the first Grand Slam of the season caused low by a break of three centimeters in the right thigh that kept him a month off the courts. Once recovered and fully on the clay tour, when she began to rediscover the sensations, she had to leave the Rome tournament due to the fracture of the vertebra. Since then the discomfort in the back has accompanied him from his descent on the Parisian clay to his retirement on the London grass.
Paula Badosa withdraws from the #NBO23 because of a back injury.
“I tried until the last minute, but I’m still feeling pain. I was really looking forward to play in Montreal and I’m sorry. See you [in Toronto] next year!” – Badosa pic.twitter.com/UHPfzyAJ1L
— Omnium Banque Nationale (@OBNmontreal) August 8, 2023
Throughout the season he has barely played 27 games: 18 wins and 9 losses is his baggage of a convulsive 2023. Not only injuries have conditioned Badosa, but also the change of coach. After recovering from Australia’s injury, he replaced Spain’s Jorge Garcia with Britain’s Joe Canell with the aim of returning to the Top 10 and fighting for the final rounds. Winner of Indian Wells in 2021 and former world number two, Badosa was trying to turn her sporting situation around, after a 2022 full of ups and downs. But the fact of leaving the Top 20 did not help the Catalan tennis player either, as she went from being seeded to playing the initial rounds in most tournaments.
He could only show his level at the start of the clay-court season when he reached the quarter-finals in Charleston, the same round in Stuttgart and the eighth round in Madrid. The results did not end up accompanying. but Badosa was positive: “I’ve been about a month since the dirt tour started feeling better, enjoying myself on track. I’m playing matches, which is what I needed, I’m leaving today annoyed but I can’t go back and I just have to look at Rome and Paris, “she said after falling in Madrid. But it would be in the Italian capital where after reaching the quarterfinals showing a great level and signing a streak on earth of 11 wins and 4 losses, his back would say enough.
He accepted in frustration not to play Roland Garros, where he reached the quarterfinals in 2021, but risked playing at Wimbledon. Even so, his body did not respond: “Sometimes you resent and now I have to see what I do in the coming weeks,” he declared after retiring in the second round of London (6-2 and 1-0 against Kostiuk).
Paula Badosa arrived in Canada with the aim of recovering sensations to prepare for the final stretch of the season with the US Open as a great objective where she could observe where her physical and tennis condition. After the loss of Paris and his fleeting passage through London, it seemed that the fracture in the L4 vertebra gave him a break. However, the physical problems do not disappear and do not help her in her efforts to return to the best level.