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World No. 7 Paula Badosa admits she has always dreamed about being the best player in the world as she aims to fulfill her childhood goal of winning a Grand Slam this year. Badosa, 24, enjoyed a breakout season last year as he captured her maiden Masters title in Indian Wells, debuted at the WTA Finals and broke into the top-10 for the first time in her career.
"To be the best in the world is something I have always dreamed of, but my first dream since I was very little was to win a Grand Slam. That’s the reason I wake up every morning, to hopefully become a Grand Slam champion one day," Badosa said, per Tennis Up To Date.
Badosa faced her fears and became mentally stronger
Badosa now handles difficult and challenging situations much better and improving her mental game is one of the keys to her recent success. "The biggest learning I took is the realisation of my own mental strength.
You will never stop having tough moments on court - there are always fears and it’s a constant battle, so to know you can overcome those fears is really important. The fear of losing can kill you and there isn’t an easy fix, it’s a process you just have to push through.
I think the key is simply to face your fears, no matter how badly you go through them and just trust that the bad times won’t define you," Badosa explained. Badosa praised superstar athletes such as Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles for coming out and publicly speaking about the importance of good mental health.
"Thanks to athletes like Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Alex Abrines, there has been a lot of conversation recently about athletes’ personal mental health experiences. I think those conversations are very important because in the end, mental health has to be normalised.
People have to see that athletes are not robots. We are going to try and give 100% but that just isn’t realistic 100% of the time," Badosa added.