WIMBLEDON — Eventually, Paula Badosa couldn’t hold it together anymore.
After beating Russian No 14 seed Daria Kasatkina on Friday afternoon to reach the Wimbledon fourth round, she spoke on court:
“For me it’s very special. I know it’s not my first time in the second week of a slam but I think it’s the most special one because a few months ago I didn’t know if I could play tennis anymore, so…”
Then the tears flowed, and the Court 3 crowd gave her a huge ovation.
A true testament to hard work and persistence 🙌
There is nothing to be embarrassed about @paulabadosa 🫶#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/FfyI34WVnc
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2024
Badosa, who was the world No 2 two years ago, has had a terrible run with injuries. A stress fracture in her back forced her out of last year’s French Open; at Wimbledon a few weeks later, she had to retire hurt from her second-round match against Marta Kostyuk.
She didn’t play a match for another six months. In January, after she returned to tennis with a defeat to American Bernarda Pera in Adelaide, it took her five days to recover. She didn’t think that was normal. She was terrified.
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“I was really scared because that had never happened to me before,” she told The Athletic this week.
“I called the doctors and they reassured me that it was normal. Then it took three days to recover and then two and then you get used to it.”
Then, in March, doctors in Indian Wells, California told her that her ongoing back issues would make it “very complicated” to continue her career. In desperation, they suggested that she take cortisone shots to manage the pain. She did, and a few months and several matches later, she found herself crying on the grass of SW19, back in the last 16 of Wimbledon for the first time in three years. On Saturday, she faced Croatian Donna Vekic — who nearly quit tennis after knee surgery a few years ago — for a spot in the quarterfinals.
If this year’s Wimbledon has a subplot, it is injuries. In tennis, an individual sport, recovery from serious physical setbacks is very tricky. There is no coming off the bench for 10 minutes in a dead rubber to get your bearings back; no salary while you’re recuperating. There is just the constant anxiety. With every passing week, you are missing out on money; with every passing week, your ranking, and with it your ability to earn that money, is slipping.
“If I open up and I talk about it, everyone calls me a spoiled brat for getting paid to just play a match,” Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis, one of the tour’s unluckiest players when it comes to injuries, said on the first Wednesday of the tournament after beating Felix Auger-Aliassime to reach the second round.
“When you’re in team sports, you get guaranteed money. You’re not always playing for prize money. You can ease your way back in — you can come on for a bit, test the leg or whatever. Here, if you come in and you’re not right, you’re going to get fined for pulling out and clearly not being ready to play. So you’ve got to be there 100 per cent.”
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Ons Jabeur, the three-time Grand Slam finalist and runner-up at the last two Wimbledons, has also been battling an ongoing knee injury this year. “I have just accepted that I will always have knee pain,” she said ahead of her Wimbledon third-round match against Elina Svitolina, which she lost on the first Saturday.
“Maybe you see me running good on the court. But, yeah, sometimes it’s tougher than other days. Definitely, it’s part of me right now.
“I think a big part of it mentally is accepting that I’ll always have pain.”
After losing to Svitolina, Jabeur revealed that she is having platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections every six months or so to try and manage the injury. She’ll have another one in the coming days and take a week or so off.
Jabeur also reflected on the spiral of financial and ranking anxiety engendered by tennis being a pay-as-you-play sport, and the way that it creates a rush to come back. This anxiety isn’t equally distributed. Players with lower rankings and less income — both from prize money, and the sponsorship deals that come with success — can’t afford to be as circumspect as the top players.
If you’re Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner, you can skip Masters events in the lead-up to the French Open to make sure you’re fully fit for Paris without worrying too much about the consequences for the bank account. Those at the very top also have access to the best teams of medical staff that money can buy. They also tend to have more helpful scheduling, with their matches at higher profile tournaments played on the biggest courts, often with roofs.
They don’t have to worry about matches being moved about or interrupted, which can impact the carefully honed recovery and preparation routines that elite athletes need to properly come back from injury.
Despite these inequalities, it’s naturally the injuries suffered by the highest-profile players that generate the most interest. The pre-Wimbledon chatter was dominated by talk of whether Novak Djokovic and/or Andy Murray would be fit. But at 37 and having won all that they have won, their concerns are very different to the ones felt by most players who are battling injuries. Djokovic and Murray are not worried about rankings and dollars. They were after a 25th Grand Slam, and a fitting ending to the best career by a British player in nearly 100 years respectively.
These are first-world tennis problems.
Injuries are cruellest when they quickly change the complexion of a player’s career. It’s why, despite her sunny upbeat tone, world No 3 Aryna Sabalenka, 26, sounded pretty worried when talking about a shoulder issue on the eve of the tournament. She then pulled out of Wimbledon the day it started, and while the idea of someone that good not staying at the top of the game might seem fanciful, Sabalenka has seen up close with her best friend and contemporary Badosa that a No 2 ranking doesn’t insulate you against the misfortune of injury.
“It’s always in my head.” Sabalenka said of her injury last weekend. “I’m always thinking, ‘What should I do to get back on track?’ That’s a lot of mental work. That’s really tough.”
As Britain’s No 1 Jack Draper, whose 2023 was ravaged by shoulder problems, put it last weekend: “Tennis is such a brutal sport in the way that when I got injured, I was 40 in the world (his ranking was No 49). I was going to all the amazing tournaments and stuff. Then I had a lot of these injuries. All of a sudden, going to the U.S. swing, I was ranked 110, 120 (his ranking was No 123). I was back to playing Challengers. No chance of wild cards, all the rest of it.
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“You just don’t know how quickly you’re going to get back. You don’t know how much hard work it’s going to be.”
In Grand Slam tournaments, they can be crueller still. At 5-2 up in the third set of a round-of-16 match against Italian No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini, American No. 12 seed Madison Keys injured her left thigh hitting a forehand. She tried to soldier on, but broke down in tears on the verge of a Wimbledon quarterfinal and had to retire from the match. Grigor Dimitrov was forced to retire 3-5 down to Daniil Medvedev at the same stage of the tournament.
On Wednesday July 10, Alex de Minaur withdrew from his quarterfinal against Novak Djokovic after injuring his hip in the final stages of his victory over Arthur Fils in the previous round. The Australian No 9 seed said he was “devastated.”
“This was the biggest match of my career,” he said. “I wanted to do anything to play.”
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In her first match at this year’s Wimbledon, Badosa faced Karolina Muchova, herself returning to tennis after a long injury lay-off, and the Czech perhaps best exemplifies the precipitous fall a tennis player can experience. Their match, a battle between a former world No 2 and a French Open finalist — and two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist — took place out in the sticks on Court 17.
Last summer, Muchova reached the Roland Garros final, where she took Iga Swiatek to three sets. She followed that up with a run to the U.S. Open semifinals, and her ranking at that point was No 8. At 27, it felt like she was making good on her rich potential and her creative, glorious variety: Seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin told The Athletic last month that Muchova is one of her favourites to watch.
When she’s fit.
Muchova needed surgery on a wrist injury after that U.S. Open run, and she didn’t play again for nine months, returning to tennis at Eastbourne, the grass-court warm-up tournament on the south coast of England that takes place the week before Wimbledon.
Like Badosa, Muchova feared that she might never play tennis again.
“I tried to not think of it but, I guess, yes (I did), once they told me I’d need a surgery and I’d never had a surgery before,” she told The Athletic.
“Especially on the wrist, which is really tricky for a tennis player. I was scared about it.”
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Muchova initially couldn’t get out of bed or brush her teeth after the surgery, but eventually she was able keep her spirits up by going to music festivals in her native Czech Republic.
By June, she was ready — or ready enough — to play some matches. Her last match was in the cauldron of a raucous Arthur Ashe Stadium against Coco Gauff in last year’s U.S. Open semifinal. Nine months later, she was on Court 2 at Eastbourne.
Life comes at you fast. Muchova won a couple of matches and then pulled out because her wrist still didn’t feel right.
Her Grand Slam comeback came early evening on Monday against Badosa, in a battle of two players at different stages of their injury recovery journey. Muchova struggled for rhythm, and Badosa won pretty comfortably in straight sets. The Czech will now focus on getting ready for the Olympics, as the long road towards hopefully full fitness continues. Her ranking is still pretty high at No 35, but it will tumble if she goes out early at the U.S. Open.
After their match, Badosa said that she felt for her opponent. “Coming back is really hard,” she said. “I was aware of that from her side. I know how tough it is.”
But then came a reminder of the merciless world these players operate in, as Badosa used her own experience to exploit her opponent’s situation.
“I knew I maybe had to make it a tough match,” she said. “I tried to play long rallies — I know it’s tough to do that on grass but maybe that was my goal to show her that she will have to stay there for hours.
“I know how tough it is because sometimes your body doesn’t respond. Your brain is thinking something but your body doesn’t respond and I knew that she might feel tired after a set or 30 minutes because she’s not used to it. That was happening to me at the beginning (of my recovery).”
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Her advice to Muchova was “have patience”.
“Maybe, to another player, I would say something different but she’s so talented, her level will come back.
“I don’t know if it’ll be in one month or six but once she can find that balance with her body and play a few matches in a row she’ll get back to where she was.”
Muchova used the word tempo a few times when describing what she needed to get used to again. “What I missed the most is the matches, the tempo,” she said. “That’s something that you only get when you play those matches.
“Every week you have another tournament. You just have to fight, and I’m just happy to be playing and have the chance to play more and more.
“This was obviously a very high-level opponent for a first round. Tennis is a cruel sport in this way.”
When WTA players come back from an injury of six months or more they have a protected ranking, taken from the last event at which they received prize money.
It allows them to enter eight tournaments in a year with that ranking, or 12 if they miss more than a year, but only two of those entries can be used on Grand Slam tournaments. Badosa chose to skip the Olympics for this reason, saving her major entries for Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
On the ATP Tour, for players who have been out for six months or more, the entry protection is the average ranking the player had in the three months after their last event, and can be used for their first nine events back. Or 12, if they’ve been out for 12 months or more.
This provides a degree of insurance, but those tournaments can quickly disappear as players attempt to feel comfortable on the court again. Once the protected ranking opportunities expire, you are on your own, having to fight your way up from the bottom again.
Take the example of Kei Nishikori, the former world No 4 and U.S. Open finalist who went from a regular at the Grand Slam closing stages to trying to rebuild his career on the Challenger circuit. Aged 34, Wimbledon was only Nishikori’s third tournament of this year, and he’s still using a protected ranking. After his first-round defeat to France’s Arthur Rinderknech, Nishikori told The Athletic that: “It’s not been easy. Even now I’m still struggling with some other stuff. It’s not easy but I still have good motivation.”
Then he added poignantly: “Somehow I still enjoy playing tennis.”
Other players at this year’s Wimbledon are in the middle of what appear to be successful comebacks. Badosa is one, Emma Raducanu is another. After her double wrist surgery last year, Raducanu’s physio Milly Mirkovic would count every single shot she hit in practice, keeping a tally to ensure the Brit didn’t overexert herself. Raducanu though is also in the nice position of getting wildcards throughout the grass-court season and at many other events besides, irrespective of her ranking. Most players don’t have that luxury.
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Most have to just keep on playing and chasing ranking points in what is a crammed schedule. Three years ago, Taylor Fritz was back playing 20 days after surgery on a torn meniscus. He didn’t think he could win the thing — but a couple of wins meant maintaining his ranking and £115,000.
“He wanted to play right afterwards and I didn’t want him to play,” says Paul Annacone, the former coach of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer who is part of Fritz’s team. “He did and he won two matches and, sure, that’s great but to me, that’s not the goal.
“I don’t think he’s giving himself the best chance to get to a Slam semi or final. I always lean to the conservative side, especially when it comes to a player’s wellbeing.”
Jabeur doesn’t see the situation improving as things stand. “I think also the scheduling and the amount of tournaments that they are adding right now doesn’t really help,” she says. “Not just me, but any other players.
“I think we’ll see the results in a couple of years when you see a lot of players are injured. It’s Wimbledon right now and I’m really curious how players will play the Olympics (on clay) and the hard court season. Honestly, it’s going to be very tough.”
What can be done?
Dr Robby Sikka is the medical director for the Professional Tennis Player Association (PTPA), which Novak Djokovic co-founded in 2020 to address, among other issues, working conditions for those on the ATP and WTA tours. “Every sport has their challenges, and tennis is a gruelling schedule,” he says.
“The lack of vacation is a problem. Basically, you’re paid to play. So all of those things make it unique and more challenging. And it means that we need to think about: how can we structure a schedule for the future? How do we balance out night matches versus day matches? How do we balance out how many tournaments are appropriate?”
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Tennis is known for its disparate structure, with seven different governing bodies, and so changes to things like scheduling are tricky. No one wants to budge, plus a lot of the players like having events all year round so that there are constant opportunities for points and paychecks.
The off-season is vanishingly small. This year’s season ends in late November with the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup and begins again with events in Australia just over a month later.
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Ahead of playing Badosa on Friday, Kasatkina spoke of how much respect she had for her opponent after her battle with injury. “It’s always tough because especially in tennis, once you stop for a bit, the tour is still going and you feel like you’re missing on something and you’re so far behind everyone,” she said.
“This feeling is very tough and you have to be very prepared to go through this challenge and come back. Sometimes you start almost from zero because if you have a long injury you might lose everything, all the points and the ranking.”
After her three-set win over Kasatkina, Badosa spoke about being told by medical experts that she should consider stopping. “At the end of the bottom of my heart, I wasn’t accepting it,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to continue no matter what.’
“Of course, there are some moments that there’s pain, and you don’t really know what to do and you a feel a little bit lost. But I didn’t care. I remember saying to my team that I was going to play with pain.”
Badosa has to manage the injury carefully. “Maybe I take more days off than I would like to, but it’s the only way,” she says.
Another of her contemporaries wasn’t so lucky. Kokkinakis had to retire hurt from his match the day after we spoke. His opponent, Lucas Pouille, who has had a similarly awful time of it with injuries, then had to withdraw before his next match had even started against Alex de Minaur with an abdominal issue.
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As for Badosa and Vekic, the battle between two players who know more than most about the pain of injuries in tennis went the distance. After three sets, and four rain delays, Vekic advanced to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4. For Badosa, disappointment, but not too much, for a player who thought she would never take to the court again half the year ago.
(Top photo: Andrej Isakovic / AFP via Getty Images)
