Paula Badosa had her breakthrough season in 2021 but recently she struggled to find her top form on the WTA Tour.
Two years ago, the Spanish player won in Indian Wells and since then, she won one more title in Sydney last year. However, at the start of the 2023 season, she couldn't defend her points, also due to an injury, and a road back to the top started for Badosa.
After a series of early exits, the 25-year-old reached the quarterfinals in Charleston, and she played well also in Stuttgart, losing only to the eventual finalist and her good friend Aryna Sabalenka.
Then, Badosa moved to the home soil in Madrid and stunned the sixth-seeded Coco Gauff, before losing to Maria Sakkari. While she managed to win some good matches, she still struggles with consistency and after her exit from the 2023 Madrid Open, she spoke to Puntodebreak about how she felt following the loss.
"I think the main thing is that she has played very solid and I helped a little with more errors than usual at important moments. The games in which she has broken me I gave away too much and that cannot be allowed against rivals of this level. I am sad, but I am aware that I am in a process, that I come from below, and I must continue enjoying the track and improving."
Badosa remembered to focus on the positives, and that's winning seven of her last ten matches and slowly progressing every week.
"The main thing for me is to continue competing regularly, improving little by little and moving forward in the process. In the long term, I want to return to where I was because I believe that I belong to the group of the best in the world."
The highest-ranked Spaniard on the WTA Tour also needs to remember that she can't become too predictable, and it's also something that she's working on with her team.
"I see that the players are starting to get to know me, so we have decided to change some things in my game and make tactical adjustments. It is not easy, in the middle of a game, to change the position of return or launch a parallel in a complicated situation, but I'm on that path so I have to continue on that path."
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