When Paula called me to train, I was not well mentally, I was very focused on thinking that if I won, great, and if I lost it was not worth for this. He did not enjoy the process. I needed a change of scene. ” Speaking, Javier Martí (29 years old), former player of Carlos Boluda’s fifth, He was also compared with Rafa Nadal for his good results in the junior stage. Since the last edition of Roland Garros he has been working with Badosa (23 years and 35th in the world), who today (12:00, Eurosport), eight months later, she faces Slovenian Tamara Zidansek (23rd and 85th) for a place in the semi-finals at heights she has never reached before.
Martí helps her a lot because he understands what it means to bear the pressure of expectations, cHow happened to the Catalan after winning the junior tournament of the French Grand Slam in 2015: “One of the things that is helping me as a coach is that I had a bad time mentally, first when I was young, because with a not very advanced age you have to manage the pressure and it is not easy. I had good results and a serious injury prevented me from advancing and having the career that I would have liked. Paula has seen that connection with me. With any thought that comes to mind, I can help you. “
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Badosa, with Javier Martí in Paris
“She does meditation sometimes, but not on a regular basis, and there is a person on the team who helps him mentally, but what she likes is to talk to me and with those of us who are 24 hours by her side “, says the coach about his player, who admitted that he had suffered from depression.
Regardless of psychological matters, Martí had to program a tactical and technical work to improve Badosa’s tennis, which had a very good foundation. “With 10-15 impacts I already saw that she was a crazy player. At Roland Garros last year I realized that you had to create a solid structure. It was difficult for him to defend, he had a lot of room for physical improvement, his diet could also be improved. The serve, the game in defense, the attack … “, explains the Madrilenian, who also understood that it was” essential to surround her with an environment with good people whom she trusted. “Together they went through a harsh confinement in Australia at the beginning of year because they contracted COVID. Now they form the fashionable binomial in women’s tennis.