Badosa opens up about the severity of her back injury: "I know I’ll retire young"
Away from the circuit since the Miami tournament, where she suffered a relapse of her back injury, Paula Badosa has been unable to start her clay-court season.
The semifinalist of the last Australian Open spoke to Eurosport about the state of her back and the pain she lives with daily:
"It’s an injury that will always be there. This time, it’s different. I can still manage the pain on the right side, but occasionally, it affects my nerve. It’s like a herniated disc that has shifted. I could play through it, but since it’s pressing on my nerve, I can’t live a normal life.
Every day, I wake up with fear. This week, I texted my coach at 5 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep. Mentally, it’s taking a toll. I’m stubborn, so I won’t retire unless the doctors tell me to… And I discuss it with them every day.
I’ve always told them: 'Until you operate on me and there’s no other solution, I’ll keep getting injections, even if they’re harmful to my body.' Even if it doesn’t help me physically, I’ll keep going as long as it allows me to play. That’s just part of who I am.
I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll retire young and that the next day, I’ll go straight into surgery. I’ve known this since I started having these back problems.
Tennis gives me so much every day. I’m not even 27 yet, so if they tell me to stop at 30 or 32, that’s how it is. But if I can endure this somehow, then I’ll try."
There exists a vested brain- trust of policymakers that pushed hard to try and remake tennis in the likeness of the Evert- Connors- Agassi- Williams- Nadal vein, and it became so pervasive that the classic game is less popular today than its brute-force-driven mutation ever was since first apparent on the circuit.! In my humble opinion, backed by years of exposure to tennis as a player and coach
with the good fortune to interact with some of the greatest contributors to tennis, this transformation has not been beneficial to the quality of play, nor the longevity of players, or the sport itself. This in the long run does not popularize our beloved pastime in the way that these non-mensa candidates imagined with dollar signs for eyeballs.