Paula Badosa reveals torn labrum caused 2025 struggles, former No. 2 talks comeback in Charleston

When Paula Badosa withdrew from the US Open for the second time in three years, most assumed the back injury that forced her to shut down her 2023 season had flared back up.

The former world No. 2 revealed Monday that it was instead a torn labrum in her right hip, one that has left her dealing with daily pain.

“People don’t know,” Badosa confirmed during her Media Day interview at the Credit One Charleston Open. “A lot of people have been asking me about the back and that’s something I’m trying to figure out but it’s at least under control. It’s not that now. Last year, starting in February and especially after Wimbledon, it was my psoas touching the tendon. But then I broke my labrum. It’s all very connected, but it’s tough to compete like this.”

Badosa is no stranger to chronic pain: her back injury had required a round of cortisone injections and contributed to a drop outside the Top 100. But the Spaniard clawed her way back up the rankings, culminating with a run to the 2025 Australian Open semifinals.

“I was maybe at my best level after Australia,” said Badosa, who described feeling blindsided by the injury, which began as pain in her right psoas muscle. “Then all of the sudden, I saw myself on the couch again for the second time.”

“I didn’t know if I had the strength to fight again because I know what it is to come back from an injury, from zero. It’s like a mountain sometimes, and to get back to the level I want to get is difficult. For me, it was very tough, seeing myself like that. Personally, I’ve been through difficult times and it wasn’t easy because it came all together.”

Badosa first felt the pain in February, weeks after returning to No. 9 in the rankings, before suffering a full-brown labrum tear around Wimbledon last summer. The 28-year-old has opted against surgery for now and has returned to injections for pain maintenance. She showed signs of her old self when she made a WTA 125K semifinal earlier this month in Austin, but confessed each day brings new uncertainty.

“Some days I wake up and I’m like, ‘Wow, I have to compete today? How am I going to do it?’ There’s so many things in my brain sometimes that I’m not even thinking about the match. It’s stressful for me.”

Long an advocate for destigmatizing mental health struggles, Badosa shared some of her doubts in an emotional social media post after falling back outside the Top 100.

“I think we all have two voices in our head,” Badosa mused on Monday. “Sometimes you can control the negative a bit better, and then there’s other times or moments in your life where you cannot. I think I’m in a bit of the latter situation. For me, personally, it has been very tough the last year when I got injured. From the moment I got it, I was thinking what it took to get me in that place again and how it had escaped from my hands again.

“It hurts me, in a way. I’m not seeing my tennis where it’s supposed to be or where I’d like it to be. So, that’s a little bit the mental battle I have with myself. I’m trying to deal with it, seeing it with perspective and patience. Still, I’m very competitive and I have that side in me. It’s a tough balance to find.”
Badosa seeks solace in a daily practice of meditation and journaling and leans on her team, led by childhood friend-turned-coach Pol Toledo. Toledo led the 2021 BNP Paribas Open champion out of the wilderness back in 2024.

I still love this sport too much. I have so much passion for this sport. I notice it every time I come to compete. I have goosebumps no matter where I play. I just love that moment. On the court, I can express myself and I enjoy it. It’s what I’ve been doing all my life and it’s my passion. Paula Badosa

“We’ve been through a lot,” said Badosa, who was Toledo’s first coaching pupil. “He didn’t know much about women’s sports because he was playing himself and he just retired. I saw how passionate he was and how much he wanted to learn about it, and how much he cares about me.”

For Badosa, who takes a 7-8 record into Charleston, the question of retirement still looms, but in the battle between those two voices, the one telling her to press on remains stronger as she takes on the clay-court swing.

“I still love this sport too much,” smiled Badosa. “I have so much passion for this sport. I notice it every time I come to compete. I have goosebumps no matter where I play. I just love that moment. On the court, I can express myself and I enjoy it. It’s what I’ve been doing all my life and it’s my passion. I also realize how much I love this sport when I go to play with my little sister. I just enjoy the moment of grabbing a racquet and hitting some balls.

“For now, because I love it so much, if the body respects me in a way and I can handle it, I will play until one day when I really want to stop. Right now, these emotions are more powerful than the other one that wants to stop.”

Badosa will play her first round against American Kayla Day on Tuesday.