In the surroundings of the Ariake Tennis Center in Tokyo, when the night and the heat had fallen, Paula Badosa appeared, still flushed, with a hell of a headache, and before going to the Olympic Village she left a lament: "Ha It was a shame, the medal made me very excited ". This August Badosa was one step away from the podium of the Games, a heat stroke knocked her out, but also in those Olympic days she made a name among the public. Since her victory at the junior Roland Garros in 2015, she was already known in tennis and since her first WTA title, in May, at the WTA 250 in Serbia, her progression was a fact, but it was in Tokyo that a star was noticed.

Before and after he had appeared in the pink press, a help in certain areas, but his recognition as a tennis player would have been difficult without his progression on the court. And this is extraordinary, it is. As she demonstrated this Sunday in the final of the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, Badosa is already one of the best players in the world and if nothing goes wrong she will be in the WTA Finals to be played in Guadalajara (Mexico) in mid-November. In a single season it has gone from being 70 on the world list to one step away from the Top Ten. How did you do it?

"She has always had talent, the key is that now she is very, very focused. She works as a 10, does everything you ask her to do, she is always willing to put in an effort, even the day after a defeat. The preparation of a tennis player is Very complicated. They play many games and travel a lot and there are those who forget the daily training, who does not continue working during the year. Paula always complies, wherever she is, she looks for a gym, a track to do series, whatever, "says David Antona, who was the Spanish high jump champion, today the tennis player's physical trainer.

With Antona and Daniel de la Serna, her nutritionist, Badosa has undergone a change this year that even surprises her: "Paula needed to transform her body. She had tennis, but she lacked the tools to take it out. I come from the world of athletics. And I think that approach is what he needed: lower his fat percentage, more power, more strength, more punch, more speed. He has done a lot of basic power work, like squats or deadlifts, he has also done many sets, many hills. .. Now he feels much more comfortable on the court ".

And indeed. Today Badosa is one of the fastest tennis players on the circuit, capable of reaching any corner of the court, capable of always being well positioned for hitting and with those arguments who knows how far she can climb. Because in psychological work, the other key aspect of preparation, it has already been years ahead. Born in New York, where her parents Josep and Mireia worked in fashion, but trained on the Costa Brava, her successes as a teenager caused serious anxiety and it took her several years to learn to digest it.

He lived a depression, there were days when he did not want to leave home and only with professional help could he move forward. Then, in 2019, under the command of coach Xavi Budó, he regained happiness and, with it, his growth in tennis. "Now I am super comfortable, super calm, I have found inner peace, which before I did not even know what that was. I want to live, which is also complicated. When you are in sport and you are so young you get lost a little and sometimes you don't You don't even know what you want. Now I know what I want and I'm very excited, "he explained at that time, as always, between changes,

Because, as happened in his training, when he passed through the Valencian TenisVal academy, Badosa has never had a fixed work group like the one that led Rafa Nadal to the top, for example. He is still in the process of finding a coach to help him develop for several seasons and something similar happens with psychologists or physical therapists. In the last year, without going any further, he has changed coach twice, from Budó to Javi Martí, with whom he celebrated his first WTA title in Serbia or his quarterfinals at Roland Garros, and in recent weeks, Jorge García.

Just after the Tokyo Games and before the American tour, the tennis player decided to do without Martí and put herself in the hands of García, with whom she had worked precisely at the TenisVal academy.

The decision, as happened with the previous change, was correct according to the results.

In the United States, before lifting the title at the Indian Wells Masters 1000, he had already reached the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000, where he had to withdraw due to a shoulder injury.

At 23, his path to success already seems unstoppable.

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