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Paula Badosa broke down in tears after an injury forced her to retire from her Dubai first-round match against Lulu Sun as the Spaniard's bad luck with health continues.
Badosa, a former world No. 2, kicked off her campaign at a WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai on Tuesday. Badosa, who plummeted to No. 74 in the world after missing the majority of the 2023 season, had a favorable Dubai first-round match against world No. 181 Sun but an injury left her unable to play out the entire match.
After Sun won the first set with a 6-4 scoreline, Badosa sat on her bench and started crying. Moments later, Badosa shook Sun's hand and called it a match.
😢¡Qué imagen!
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) February 19, 2024
🎾Paula Badosa se derrumba en el banquillo tras perder el primer set contra Sun y abandona en su debut en el WTA 100 de Dubai
👏¡Ánimo, Paula!https://t.co/RtgLoeBL1W pic.twitter.com/LkoMPdDUjb
Badosa's injury struggles continue
Last year, 26-year-old Badosa experienced one of the most difficult and challenging seasons of her career as she appeared in just one tournament in the remainder of 2023 after picking up a stress fracture injury in May. When Badosa launched her comeback in the second week of the 2024 season in Adelaide, she admitted it was "very hard" to be sidelined for a good portion of 2023.
"It was a very slow process. Accepting all this was very hard, especially mentally, because as I always say, I love playing tennis and I love competing. Suddenly, one day I had to stop completely and I had to stay on the couch, so imagine how boring that was," Badosa said at the start of her comeback in Adelaide.
By retiring in Dubai, Badosa already picked up her second mid-match retirement in 2024. In late January, Badosa was also down by a set to Diana Shnaider when she retired from their Hua Hin round-of-16 match.
Considering that Badosa was left in tears before retiring against Sun, that could be a reason for concern. However, there are still two weeks before Indian Wells kicks off and Badosa still has time to recover and participate in the desert.