The new life of Paula Badosa

After pounding herself in one of the CAR gyms in Madrid, Paula Badosa (New York, 23 years old) arrives in the City of the Racket, where she has an appointment with AS to talk about his preparation and his goals for the uncertain 2021 season, which is not yet known how or where it will begin. The tennis player works with her mind set on the first Grand Slam of the course, straddling Marbella, a town in which it seeks a climate more similar to that of the Australian summer, and the capital of Spain (“I love it”, it says), where he settled after leaving Barcelona in September, shortly before Roland Garros.

“I needed a change and I'm doing very well. I started a little from scratch, because I needed to break with the previous thing and try new things that are giving me different and very positive aspects”, explains Badosa, who left his previous coach, Xavi Budó, after losing in the Istanbul semifinals against Eugenie Bouchard and hired the Madrid tennis player Javier Martí. With him he reached the eighth in Paris and went from position 87 in the ranking to 69, which will allow him to avoid the previous ones in many tournaments of the circuit (“Qualys are very tough,” he warns). “I had good results when I was a teenager and many expectations that I could not fulfill. I had some very bad years. Little by little I am maturing, growing as a person, and I try to forget that dark past in which I had a worse time. I think that to evolve as a person you have to leave behind what you drag, “says Paula, who is clear about where her evolution should go.” I am feeling very good and I think that my great improvement has to be physical. That's what I'm focusing on this season. Because I think tennis will accompany me later. Before it was difficult for me to be more regular, I injured myself, I recovered badly, I could not perform the same from one day to the next. Physically I was not in my best shape and that is very important to me. “

Badosa aims high for the long term (“I am ambitious and will keep up expectations until I finish my career”), but has more immediate goals and dreams: “I always mark myself the same, which is to take a step forward in all aspects. Next year is very important, it is a year of Games, and it is a challenge that I would like to achieve. Going to some Games is something very special. In addition, gradually climbing the ranking steps. “The Catalan has the top-50 at 317 points and is the third best Spanish in the rankings after Garbiñe Muguruza (15th) and Sara Sorribes (66th), so her aspirations are not they are insane. “I like to train with big goals. It's easier to see them when you come in with good results and with a better ranking than a season ago. Yes, I see them closer.” The junior champion of Roland Garros in 2015, Prize AS Promesa then, has overcome the anguish with a new team and looks to the future with optimism.