Paula Badosa cries at Roland Garros

The dawn has passed abundantly, Paula Badosa He was doing his last job that day in Paris, being there in front of the media. He arrived accompanied by his team, with bags prepared to immediately leave a nearly empty facility.

Rain lengthens the day in Paris. The eyes of Badass They are irritated. They are an expression of the flood of emotions he experienced in his return to Roland Garros, the Grand Slam of which he is junior champion, which he missed in 2023 due to a back injury that continues to be the sword of Damocles in his career. .

Badosa cried twice heading into the second round, in a match she won against the British Katie Boulter by 4-6, 7-5 and 6-4. He was forced to make a valiant comeback, after flirting with giving up all because of crippling lower back discomfort.

“It’s not easy, it’s hard for me. I was playing against myself. I haven’t felt good about tennis at all. There are many emotions inside and outside that are not easy to manage. I was having negative feelings but I lost it, I know if how to overcome them, I’m proud of it,” he said.

The tears came twice, at different times. There is crying out of sadness, as well as positive feelings. They went from dominating 4-2 to 4-6, losing 17 of 18 points. He looked at his coach, Pol Toledo. He flirted with throwing in the towel, but he stuck with it and it was worth it.

Tears of despair turned to liberation and joy. He left Track 9 with wet eyes. He outdid himself.

“I am very honest. After Rome I feel pain again. I had to return to Spain to infiltrate. There are the doubts and the uncertainty of if the injections will always have the same effect. I feel it in every game, I’m afraid. It’s a battle of many things,” he emphasizes.

In March they assured him that his career depended on the admissions behind him, although “with two or three more years of tennis I would be satisfied,” Badosa said then. He clings to his passion, even knowing that there is no magic cure, that treatment does not ensure long hours of tennis.

If there is humidity and cold in the night session, as it happened, “it affects me, they say that the cold affects it. I noticed it at the end of the first set. But (the program) does not depend on me. and this what I have to do and I accept If it were me, I would play every day at twelve o’clock in the day,” he pointed out.

Despite the physical condition, he signed up for mixed doubles with the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, as well as his romantic partner. “On the rest day I have to train. I have a lot to improve, and it seems like a good idea to play doubles or mixed. I decided to play the mixed because of the partner I have, who will do a lot of work and help to me It is for the improvement of four details, such as volley and the most competitive part It is an hour, an hour and a half.

This Thursday he will return to the individual draw, second round against the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva, who handles clay better than Katie Boulter. Badosa wouldn’t mind crying again, but out of pleasure, out of happiness.

At 26 years old, many months without work, a return punctuated by pain and abandonment. He lives day by day, with the added difficulty of a rank (no. 139) that also does not provide peace of mind. Less for a person number 2.