“Learning to lose is the hardest thing for me” – Paula Badosa

Spanish tennis star Paula Badosa has opened up about the intense nature of the tennis tour and her competitive nature in a new interview with Glamour magazine.

The 25-year-old Badosa is currently ranked No 42 in the world but has been as high as No 2 just a little over a year ago. She has a 11-6 record on the tour this year and admits that learning to lose has been hard for her.

“Learning to lose is the hardest thing for me. We play every week and there’s a day of that week that you’re going to lose, because obviously you don’t win every competition, it’s impossible,” Badosa said in the interview in Spanish which has been translated. “During a very good year, you can win two or three tournaments. You already know that others are going to lose them and that’s why you have to train your head to learn to lose, which is one of the things that has been most difficult for me to understand. Also, that you can take positive things out of failure and that every week is a new opportunity.”

Every week you get to a point where you’re going very far to the limit

Paula Badosa

Badosa also spoke about how the tennis circuit can be mentally very demanding due to its intensity, year-long calendar and the global nature of the sport.

“It’s crazy. For me, the tennis circuit is the most intense there is. You start the year in January, in Australia, and you finish it in November, in Japan, having gone through all the continents. It becomes very intense,” Badosa said. “The good thing is that I’m doing what I like, which in the end is a passion. But it is still mentally very demanding. Yesterday I was landing here, from the United States. Today I am in Madrid and the day after tomorrow I am in Germany.”

“In the end it becomes very mental, you are very lonely. You, on a track against another rival, who also wants to beat you. It’s like a game of chess. Every week you get to a point where you’re going very far to the limit.”

The Spaniard added that having a good team around her is very important for her to deal with the pressure and expectations that come with the job.

“For me, the most important thing is the team you have, how you lean on them, because in the end it’s very intense,” the Spaniard said. “You are very young and you have to mature by leaps and bounds. Sometimes your head is not prepared to withstand all that pressure, that demand to play in front of 20,000 people, the press, yourself. A lot of things accumulate. Then there are social networks, which is also something that influences. That’s why there are players who retire, who go through anxiety, depression.”

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