“I still cry sometimes when I talk to doctors” | Relief
“This year I should try to enjoy“. Since the first response in Madrid, Paula has avoided pressure. She has reasons for not feeling wanted, she had a very difficult year with a back injury that can change your life for the worse. You can afford it, come in search of sensations. On in fact, his second thought comes to another: “Well, you will like it too, because I have a very good connection with the public.”
This is the contract he signs these weeks in Madrid: a little “go out and have fun” football. During his last tour of the United States, he said that the spinal problem had jeopardized not only his season or current moment, but in some ways his career. Badosa remembers the feeling when he spoke with the doctor about this topic. “It was a very difficult moment, I cried a lot and still cry sometimes when I hear things like that or when I talk to doctors,” he explains.
Badosa, like many athletes before him, has a desire that his body can’t satisfy, but it’s far from over. “In the same time I have a character that says I will still succeed.that I will still continue to fight. And I’m like, a little stupid, but I think that in this case it can help,” she says before the Madrid tournament.
Madrid can help, although this always means extra pressure on the Spanish players. “I’m a very emotional, very passionate player. and I like to feel these moments. During the year I really missed this adrenaline, this feeling. So I hope that at this tournament I can make a difference.”
He says the back injury is “chronic” but he is now starting to find a point where the pain subsides. “These 11 months were very difficult, I went out on the track and constantly felt discomfort.. Honestly, I’ve had fairly controlled pain since Miami. I’m happy with this. What happens is that because I haven’t competed for a while, if one thing doesn’t work out, something else comes out. This is when minor injuries may appear. But I try to control it as much as possible,” he explains, because he has also recently had problems with his adductors.
The doubts are understandable: “Sometimes it’s sad, there are days when I wake up and don’t play so well, and I think, is this valuable?” The answer comes a little later in the chain of thoughts. “For example, the other day when I played against Arina, I was a little excited because I’m finally back on the field and I’m loving it again.. In such moments I will continue to fight, I try to be very positive,” she explains. She is referring to the defeat in Stuttgart to Sabalenka, a match in which the level was closer to Badosa’s best than in previous months.
The conversation is full of doubts and uncertainty, partly because this is a period in Badosa’s life, but in these circumstances she remembers that if she is in Madrid and continues to play tennis, it is because she believes that she still has a lot to do : “I’m looking at the longer term because at the end of the day, if my injury allows me to, I will always have that hope. and I will always continue to believe in myself. And the day I stop believing in myself is the day I stop playing.”