Daily Times

Former world number two Paula Badosa on Tuesday vowed to “keep fighting” for her career despite doctors telling her “it would be complicated” to continue playing professional tennis due to a stress fracture she sustained in her back last year.

The Spaniard was told she might have to manage her pain using cortisone shots in order to stay competing and admits she has had many low moments as she tries to come to terms with the medical advice she is being given. “I cried a lot and I’m still crying sometimes when I hear that and when I have talks with the doctors,” Badosa told reporters at the Madrid Open ahead of her first-round match.

“But at the same time, I have this personality, this character that it’s like, ‘I will still get through it, I will still keep fighting’. I’m like that, I’m a little bit stubborn. But I think maybe that in this case can help.” Besides consulting with doctors, Badosa has turned to many of her colleagues — including Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Bianca Andreescu — who had suffered similar injuries, seeking encouragement. “Sometimes you just don’t want to accept what the doctor says and you’re like, ‘For sure they’re making a mistake’. I just try to stay positive,” added the 26-year-old.

“There are some days that I wake up and I’m not feeling that well and I ask myself, ‘Is this worth it?’.” Badosa, who did not play last year after exiting Wimbledon in July due to the injury, was forced to retire from her second-round clash with Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka in Stuttgart last week with a minor adductor tear. But she had pushed the world number two before that moment, with the players level in a deciding set. “It’s the level that you want to be at, that fighter again. So even though I didn’t win in that moment, for moments like that I will keep fighting,” she said.