Paula Badosa rallied from a break down in the final set to snap Daria Kasatkina's seven-match win streak and advance to the Round of 16 at Wimbledon. The former World No.2 came back from 4-2 down in the third set win 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-4 in 2 hours and 51 minutes.

Badosa, 26, did not hold back her tears after the hard fought win, which put her into Wimbledon's second week for the third time in her career and first since the debilitating back injury that has plagued her since the start of 2023. It was the same injury that forced her to retire from Wimbledon 12 months ago and shut down the remainder of her season. 

Badosa returned to competition in January but the struggles were evident. In the first three months of the year, she won back-to-back matches just once.

"In Indian Wells, the doctors told me it would be very complicated to continue my career," Badosa said on the WTA Insider Podcast. 

"I said, 'A few more years? I'm still 26.' For me that was very tough."

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But with the help of cortisone shots and a refusal to let her career whittle away, Badosa quietly built up belief in her body and her tennis once again. Her run to the Round of 16 in Rome, where she beat Mirra Andreeva, Emma Navarro and Diana Shnaider before taking Coco Gauff to a third set, was huge catalyst. Then came two wins over Katie Boulter and Yulia Putintseva at Roland Grass. 

She came into Wimbledon after making her first quarterfinal of the season, on the grass at Bad Homburg. That run put her back in the Top 100 at No.93.

Badosa has played like a woman renewed at SW19. It began with clinical wins over Karolina Muchova and Brenda Fruhvirtova. That set up a true gut-check against Rothesay International champion Kasatkina, who was bidding to extend her win streak to a personal-best eight matches. 

After a delayed start due to rain, Badosa raced to a 3-0 lead before Kasatkina slowly and methodically reeled her in. After trailing 5-2, Kasatkina won three consecutive games and saved three set points to keep the set in the balance, but Badosa surged from 5-5 in the tiebreak to take the set. 

Kasatkina struck back in the second set with a timely break in the 10th game to take the set and rode that momentum to a 4-2 lead in the decider. But the Eastbourne champion failed to consolidate the break and Badosa was off and running. With more aggressive, disciplined hitting, the Spaniard won the last four games to score the upset.