Paula Badosa stuns third seed Coco Gauff to reach Australian Open semi-final
Share:
It has been 10 months since Paula Badosa was informed by her doctors that her career might be over. During the 2023 tennis season, not long after she had stood as the No 2 player in the world, Badosa suffered a debilitating stress fracture in her back that had left her in significant pain and forced her to withdraw from every grand slam tournament that year. By last March, the 27 year-old was fighting for her career.
![[Coco Gauff and Paula Badosa embrace at the net at the end of the match.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/312374e0aabdd7d20be3431b7c7acc7632c0af5e/0_0_4700_3135/master/4700.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The initial resolution was cortisone injections to manage the immediate pain and inflammation, allowing her to return to the tour even though her long-term future remained uncertain. She has used her time back in the sport incredibly well. Having spent the past nine months faithfully re-establishing her spot among the elite, Badosa broke completely new ground on Tuesday by reaching the semi-final of a grand slam tournament for the first time in her career.
In the tension-filled final moments of one of the biggest matches of her career, Badosa brilliantly held her nerve to upset Coco Gauff, the third seed and one of the tournament favourites, closing out a brilliant 7-5, 6-4 win. “I’m a bit emotional,” said Badosa, the 11th seed, afterwards. “I’m a very emotional person and overcoming something like this, the last slam, the quarter-finals were very tough. Today, I came in, I wanted to play my best tennis. I did it. Coco, at the beginning, she was playing insane tennis. I’m super proud of the level I gave today.”.
As she struggled to find a way back to professional tennis, Badosa fell out of the top 100 last year, dropping as low as No 140 in May. She has made a remarkable comeback since then, compiling a run of extremely consistent results and few poor losses. With one of the best results of her career, Badosa will also return to the top 10 for the first time since 2022.
