An emotional Paula Badosa revealed that a chronic back injury almost forced her to quit tennis after reaching the Australian Open semi-finals on Tuesday.
The 11th seed secured a shock 7-5, 6-4 victory over world No 3 Coco Gauff in their quarter-final match in Melbourne.
Badosa fell to the court in celebration, becoming the first Spanish woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Garbine Muguruza, also in Melbourne, in 2020.
"I'm a bit emotional," said the 27-year-old Badosa, who will face two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a place in the final.
"I'm a very emotional person. I wanted to play my best game. I think I did it. I'm super-proud of the level I gave today."
It caps a remarkable comeback to tennis for the world No 12, who was ranked well outside the top 100 a year ago after a stress fracture in her back.
"I mean, a year ago I was here with my back that I didn't know if I had to retire from this sport," said Badosa, who reached a career-high two in the world in 2022.
Badosa described some dark days during last year's clay-court season when her inflamed lower back refused to respond to treatment.
"I thought about stopping when I was doing injections because they told me I had to do max three a year, and I was already on my second one in the fourth month of the year," Badosa told reporters.
"It was pretty bad for me and also the back was still hurting. So in that moment I really didn't know what to do.
"After my home tournament in Madrid it was very tough for me. A mix of back, mentally, and everything."
The condition did begin to ease and, after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon, Badosa started to find form.
She won in Washington, made the semi-finals in Cincinnati, quarter-finals at the US Open and finished with back-to-back semis at the China Open and Ningbo Open as she shot back up the rankings.
She will now jump back into the top 10 after Melbourne.
"I'm in a semi-final, I would never think that a year after I would be here," she said.
Badosa began aggressively against in-form third seed Gauff and had the American's serve under pressure early in the first set.
The Spaniard broke at 5-5 and served out to take the opener in 56 minutes.
Badosa then turned the screws in the second set, stretching out to 5-2 with a double break.
Badosa did drop one service game as Gauff went for broke, but secured the match in 1hr 43min.
It was her first win over a top-10 opponent at a Grand Slam in four attempts.
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