[13] In March 2015, she made her first breakthrough after receiving a wildcard for the main draw at the Premier Mandatory Miami Open, where she recorded her first two match wins on the WTA Tour.

[13] At the 2019 Australian Open, she made her Grand Slam main-draw debut, after passing qualifying; she lost to wildcard Kimberly Birrell in the first round.

[24][25] As a result, she entered the top 40 for the first time in her career and went on to win her maiden title when Ana Konjuh retired injured in the final.

This, along with complaints from other tennis players such as Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic, was the catalyst for Olympic officials to change the earliest start time for matches from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.[31] On 12 August 2021, Badosa parted ways with her coach Javier Martí whom she had worked with for eleven months.

[32] On 23 August 2021, following her second WTA 1000 quarterfinal at the Cincinnati Open where she defeated en route Petra Martić, third seed Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, she reached a career-high in singles of world No.

On 17 October 2021, Badosa defeated former two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in a three-hour thriller match to win the Indian Wells tournament, for her first WTA 1000 title.

At the Australian Open, she reached the second week for the first time in her career at this major with wins over Tomljanović,[42] qualifier Martina Trevisan[43] and Marta Kostyuk.

At Indian Wells, where she was the defending champion, she reached the semifinals with wins over Tereza Martincová,[52] fellow Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo,[53] US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez[54] and Veronika Kudermetova.

She got a very hard draw with her potential path to the final consisting of Veronika Kudermetova, Simona Halep, Coco Gauff, Jabeur and Sabalenka.

[75] At the French Open, she secured wins over Fiona Ferro[76] and Kaja Juvan,[77] but a calf injury forced her to retire in the second set of her third round match against Kudermetova.

[83] She started the US hard court swing by reaching the semifinals at the Silicon Valley Classic with wins over qualifier Elizabeth Mandlik[84] and sixth seed Gauff,[85] losing to eventual champion Kasatkina.

[95] With a 2–8 record since reaching the semifinals at the Silicon Valley Classic, and with the points of the 2021 WTA Finals coming out, she dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since she first enter it, to No.

[101] Despite being scheduled to play both singles and mixed doubles again at the second round robin tie against Australia, she did not take part in any of those matches as Spain had no chances of advancing to the knockout stage.

[102] At the Adelaide International 2, she reached the semifinals with wins over Anett Kontaveit,[103] lucky loser Kaia Kanepi[104] and Beatriz Haddad Maia.

She recovered in time for the middle east swing, but had to withdraw from the Abu Dhabi Open ahead of her first round match against Liudmila Samsonova due to illness.

[125] At the Italian Open, she defeated qualifier Anna-Lena Friedsam,[126] Ons Jabeur,[127] Marta Kostyuk[128] and Karolína Muchová[129] to reach the quarterfinals, losing to Jeļena Ostapenko in three sets.

Three days before her first round match against Williams, she withdrew from the tournament[135] and announce on social media that she was ending her season as, after trying multiple solutions, the pain in her back didn't let her compete.

Captain Anabel Medina Garrigues announced her as part of the team, but she end up not playing any matches with Spain getting eliminated in the group stage.

[147] The following week, at Dubai, the back forced her to retire in tears, after the first set of her first round match against the -at that time- Swiss wildcard Lulu Sun.

She was awarded a wildcard for Indian Wells,[149] but had to withdraw ahead of her first-round match against Krueger,[150] after the doctors told her it would be very complicated to continue her career, with regular cortisone shots being the solution to manage the pain.

Badosa started the clay court season with a first round loss to Miami champion Danielle Collins in straight sets at Charleston.

[159] Despite the injury, she played at her home tournament in Madrid, suffering a shocking first round upset to fellow Spaniard Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro in three sets.

[169] While she was looking forward to participate, with plans of playing at Palermo as a warm up tournament,[170] Badosa had, after the French Open, to make the decision to skip the Paris Olympics as she didn't qualify based on the official rankings.

[172] A quarterfinals run at Bad Homburg,[173] with wins over Arantxa Rus and local Jule Niemeier, before losing to eventual champion Diana Shnaider in their fourth encounter of the season,[174] made Badosa return to the top 100 after ten weeks at No.

[175] At Wimbledon, she reached the fourth round with wins over Karolína Muchová,[176] Brenda Fruhvirtová[177] and 14th seed Daria Kasatkina,[178] before losing to eventual first time semifinalist Donna Vekić.

[179] She received a wildcard for the Washington Open and reached the final with wins over Grand Slam champions Sofia Kenin and Emma Raducanu, third seed Liudmila Samsonova and Caroline Dolehide.

[206] Spain failed to advanced to the quarterfinals as Sara Sorribes Tormo lost the first point of the tie to Magda Linette in a nearly four hours match.

Badosa's strongest groundstroke is her two-handed backhand, with which she dominates opponents on the court, and she hits large numbers of winners with this shot.

[2] Despite this, Badosa possesses a remarkably complete defensive game, with her superb movement, footwork, court coverage, and stamina allowing her to counterpunch, and to create opportunities to hit winners at the end of long rallies.

[211] Due to her aggressive playing style, clay court prowess, mental toughness, physical appearance, and the similarity in the mechanics of their serves, she has been frequently compared to her idol, Maria Sharapova.