Paula Badosa is the fourth Spanish woman to crack the WTA top 2
Paula Badosa rose to a career-high ranking of No. 2 on Monday following a string of consistent results over the past year. Her run to the semifinals in Stuttgart last week, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets, confirmed her ascendency to the second spot in the rankings.
The Spaniard toppled an injury-stricken Barbora Krejcikova for the position and is a little over 2000 points away from top-ranked Iga Swiatek, who recently won her fourth straight title of 2022 in Stuttgart. She is now just the fourth woman from her country to attain the top 2 ranking behind Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez and Garbine Muguruza.
In a recent Instagram post, Paula Badosa reflected on her journey towards accomplishing the feat. She emphasized that she was “living her dream” and complemented the post with a couple of snapshots from her childhood.
“Never has a Monday felt so good,” Badosa wrote on Instagram. “Happy for the road travelled and overcome. It’s taken a lot but in the end, it was all worth it. Grateful to be living my dream. Ps: I don’t usually post rankings but this one I was especially looking forward to.”
Badosa claimed the spotlight when she reached the semifinals in Madrid last year as an unseeded player before bagging her maiden WTA title in Belgrade. Later that season, the 24-year-old scripted a stunning run to the championship at the WTA 1000 event at Indian Wells for the biggest title of her career.
She advanced closer to the higher tier of the sport with a third WTA trophy in Sydney earlier this year. She further amplified her chances at cracking the top 2 with back-to-back quarter-final appearances at Indian Wells and Miami.
“It’s a very mental game, but I’m happy I’m getting through it”- Paula Badosa
In an interview with WTA Insider after sealing the No. 2 ranking, Paula Badosa highlighted how she was earnestly working towards it. She shed light on the undying pressures of the sport but was pleased with how she was able to avoid mental lapses during most of her matches.
“It was a goal and I really wanted to be in that position,” the Spaniard said. “For me, it’s a dream come true so I was really going after it. So I’m really happy that I could leave that mental block out of the match and play pretty well. There’s so much pressure on you and at the end of the day, you’re all alone on the court. It’s a very mental game. But I’m happy I’m getting through it.”
Badosa will soon be in action at the 2022 Madrid Open, which begins on April 28.
