Always a nonconformist, the Paula Badosa of today is far from the one who rose to second place in the world three years ago and who four years ago conquered a prestigious stage like Indian Wells. “I’ll stick with today’s one, by far,” he responds bluntly to Morning Express’s approach. An hour earlier she defeated Coco Gauff, the number three in the world, 7-5 and 6-4 (in 1h 41m), and for the first time managed to cross the barrier of the quarterfinals after two frustrated attempts and thus reach the semifinals. of a great one, in which she will face her friend Aryna Sabalenka (6-2, 2-6 and 6-3 against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova). Today she is 27 years old, has a few war wounds and says she is getting older, no longer being that tennis player who burst in from below and surprised. Today, he emphasizes, it is much more complete. A real professional.
“The one from Indian Wells was a very good player, but, in the end, she comes out of nowhere, nobody knows her; good shots, physically strong… People didn’t know me and now the situation is different; Now it’s much harder to win games because they know what bothers you the most and how you play. It was also seen today against Coco [20 años]; She knew where I was going to go and vice versa. So now it becomes much more difficult to win matches, because they know all your strengths and also your weaknesses. I think the physical, mental and tennis mix now is much better than then. “I’m better in all aspects,” explains the woman from Begur. Whatever happens, she will leave Melbourne among the top ten on the circuit.
Badosa is happy. A lot. But he wants more. For those who are not in the elite world, whatever the sport, it is difficult to understand this permanent desire to go for more and for everything to taste little. Dissatisfaction as a driving force. The insatiability. It’s been happening to her since it started. “I would like to say, and I think my team would too,” he clarifies, “that I have nothing to lose on Thursday, but when you are already there, in the final rounds, all the ambition comes out because you are aware of everything that lies ahead of you.” It has been difficult to get here, so you don’t want to waste it.” So it brings sparks to this present of Australian brilliance, fueled by a victory of merit that underlines the ascending line.
Badosa says that “almost all of us learn the hard way” and that behind the zigzagging trajectory that she has described since she joined the elite there is simply passion. First the depression, then the back trouble. Double crossroads. And now, the certainty that you have chosen the right path by reformulating yourself and understanding, but without losing the essence. The hurricane winds are there, in the shadows; They simply transmit from their team, it is about “taking advantage of them so that they push for and not against.” Psychology.
“Always believed”
“I took a very big stick at the US Open [cuartos] and I remember sitting down and saying: well, I am lucky or unlucky that the next Grand Slam is in four months, but I want to be there again and have the opportunity,” he introduces. “I learned from that and, from then on, when all that happened, I worked a lot with my psychologist.” [Daniel de la Serna] during the preseason; We were working on it a lot in person, in Dubai [donde reside]putting ourselves in the situation a lot, visualizing a lot; Every day I visualize what I want, every day I meditate, I work on all of that to be in the present,” continues the Catalan, who has found essential support in her current coach, Pol Toledo, to outline this version. 2.0 improved.

LUKAS COCH (EFE)
In March 2023, they joined their paths as a result of a carom—a chance meeting in Miami—and, from then on, everything has been growth for her. A vertebral fracture put her between a rock and a hard place, but the setback only deepened the tennis player’s will to achieve what she set out to do when she started playing ball as a child on the Costa Brava: to step on some summit. At 18 he won the junior Roland Garros and then received a visit from ghosts. “They inflated my head, they told me I was the new Sharapova and that sank me. I got into a hole. “I was not prepared,” she told this newspaper in 2019, precisely during a talk in Australia, a land of contrasts for her; from those two weeks of forced confinement in a hotel due to the coronavirus, to the beautiful future of the present.
“I am very proud of the path I am taking,” she conveys to the special envoys, to whom a few days ago she assured that she is going through her moment of greatest emotional and vital balance. And, at the end of the day, it is about that message that tries to inoculate you with your environment: enjoy it, not suffer it. “Now I value things more,” she adds, now becoming the fifth Spaniard to progress to the penultimate round of a major after Lilí Álvarez, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Conchita Martínez and Garbiñe Muguruza. A year ago it had fallen to 140th place in the ranking and his back kept him half a year without playing. He hit rock bottom in the Caja Mágica. Since then, temperance, daily effort and the unwavering determination to try again: “I have always believed. If I had stopped doing it I would have hung up my racket, and I never ended up doing it. “Tennis is my life.”