Paula Badosa won't compete at the 2024 Guadalajara Open after choosing to withdraw from the WTA 500 tournament in Mexico.
The Spaniard experienced one of her best years in 2021, winning over 40 matches and securing a spot at the WTA Finals, which were then played in Guadalajara. She performed well at the event, making the semi-final, where she was beaten by Garbine Muguruza, who would end up winning the event.
Fast forward to 2024, and Muguruza is retired from the sport while Badosa recently made the US Open quarter-final. That run in New York was a continuation of a great stretch of results for the Spaniard, who hasn't had many happy days in tennis in recent years.
Badosa picked up a back injury, which, regrettably, turns out to be chronic and will continue to impact her career. Things looked bleak for a very long time, but with time and effort, Badosa was able to nurse herself back to health and return to the tennis court, even playing good tennis.
While she contemplated quitting the sport earlier this year, the 26-year-old was able to persevere and was rewarded with a signature run in New York, which ended against the fantastic Emma Navarro.
It was the spark she needed to keep pushing because now she knows that the level is still there; she just needs to keep working towards that. To achieve that, Badosa was set to play in Guadalajara, a nice place for her as she's generally done really well in Mexico in the past.
Unfortunately, she won't be playing there, likely due to the fatigue from playing in New York, as it was a very long week for her. It's not uncommon for players to sign up for events but then drop out later after achieving a certain result.
Badosa didn't know how things would go in New York, and if she had crashed out early, having a chance to play in Guadalajara would have been appreciated. As she had a good run in New York, there was seemingly no need to play in Guadalajara, and with the nature of her back injury, it only makes sense to take it easy and give herself a chance to rest up properly.
A few seeded players withdrew from the tournament in recent days, as Badosa joined a list that also features Qinwen Zheng, Maria Sakkari, and Beatriz Haddad Maia in pulling out from the Guadalajara Open.
In the upcoming weeks, the Tour is moving to Asia for a hard-court swing in China and Japan, and Badosa will likely make an appearance at some of the tournaments in Asia.
She is technically within striking distance of the WTA Finals, but she'll need to have a really great run to finish the year. She's currently 14th in the race, trailing the number 8 by about 900 points.
That's nothing she can't overcome, but she'll need to finish strongly and possibly win a couple of events, too, if she wants to compete at the WTA Finals in Riyadh.
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