Quote du jour: How Paula Badosa channeled her inner Rafael Nadal in Roland Garros comeback

After Paula Badosa lost the opening set in a tiebreaker against four-time major winner Naomi Osaka on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Monday—after she serve for the set at 6-5 and had a set point, no less—she allowed her mind to wander: not to rue her missed opportunities, but to take inspiration from another Grand Slam champion.

Rafael Nadal's fellow Spaniard cast her eyes on the imprint of his footprint etched courtside in the Parisian clay, unveiled Sunday as a permanent tribute to him at the tournament he dominated, and she found a match-changing spark.

In just her third match since March, all of which have come in the last six days after a flare-up of the recurring back injury that's threatened her career since 2023, Badosa was happy to dig deep, both physically and mentally—just as Nadal would have.

"When I was 7-6 down, the first thing I did was look over there and get strength and inspiration from Rafa," , "and I was like, 'Come on, Paula, you have to fight like he was doing."

"I knew in that moment, I lost the first set but I was playing really good tennis," Badosa later continued, speaking in-studio to Caroline Wozniacki and the TNT Sports crew. "I thought we were both playing high-level tennis, and I thought, 'OK, Paula, you have to continue; you have to be consistent; it's one the keys today, to stay consistent the entire match, and if she wants to win [against] me, she'll have to stay here for three hours. That was a little bit the mindset of today.

"I looked here and I said, 'Rafa, here, would fight until the end ... so let's try to do that."

Read more: Rafael Nadal leaves his mark on Chatrier, and gets the farewell he deserved at Roland Garros

In a physically-taxing two hours and 21 minutes, Badosa eventually wore Osaka down. The former world No. 1 racked up twice the number of unforced errors as the one-time world No. 2, 54 to 27, by the time things were all said and done. It was the kind of perfomance that Badosa said she could take confidence from: not just in how she responded to adversity, but in how her body held up.

She moves on to face world No. 80 Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania in the second round.

Q. On the court you said that both of you guys are quite aggressive players and tried to take the opportunity. At the same time you played very long rallies today. You won most of these long rallies. Talk about how do you take the balance between being aggressive and patient?

PAULA BADOSA: Yeah, that's a little bit the goal, to find that balance, to try to go for the point, but at the same time to be consistent.

I know today it was very important to be consistent. Yeah, I think she played great also. We both played very well. It could go either side.

First set was very high level. She won. The third set was a very, very high level. It went my side. I have to be honest, it's not fair to have a first round like this.

For her in this case, she lost, because she's playing very good tennis. Well, very, very soon she's going to be where she wants to be, for sure.

Q. Physically you are fine? Are you satisfied with your condition?

PAULA BADOSA: Yeah, I mean, now I'm tired honestly. I'm very happy on how my body responded today. We were playing very long rallies. She hits hard. We were both playing. I think we both went to the limit.

There was one moment there in the third set that was tough. But I hanged in there. I'm really happy and pleased with how my body responded today.