The best day of Paula Badosa's career. The Catalan player had never reached the semifinals of a 'Grand Slam'and this Australian Open did not seem like the best time to achieve it, taking into account that it came with a series of defeats in the previous tournaments and had a very tough draw. However, in Melbourne she had been serving with more or less suffering in each match until she reached the quarterfinals where the WTA number 3, Coco Gauff, was waiting, who despite not being at her best was the favorite against Begur, but she ended up falling in two sets (7-5, 6-4) due to the brutal level of the Spanish.
The last two times they had faced each other Badosa and Gauff, at the WTA 1000 in Rome and Beijing last yearthe same thing had happened, that the Spanish had taken the first set with solvency but in the end he had ended up winning the one in Atlanta.
As could be expected, in the first set the tone from the beginning was equality, with both of them maintaining their serve reliably, although the chances of breaking were Paula's, who did not take advantage of them. As the games went on, the American player became more comfortableHowever, his weak point, the forehand, began to be a problem when Badosa began to attack him with high balls. A very big problem that ended up costing him the set 7 to 5. The last duels were repeated again, but this time the outcome was different.
Paula Badosa's hammer
After winning the first set Badosa did the best he could do, breaking serve in the first game of the second. However, the lead lasted just two games, as Gauff equalized in the fourth. But it was a mirage, because the winner of last year's ATP Finals went into a loop and ended up losing the next three games. The right of the 'Yankee' was a drama and unforced errors followed one another until almost twenty when the scoreboard showed a 5 to 2 that seemed definitive.
Then Coco had an attempt at resurrection with a perfect game to the rest and maintaining his servebut the second time he couldn't take it anymore and Badosa closed this second round with his serviceplaying well with his confident and serious game, with hardly any errors and, as in the previous rounds, relying on a serve that is working for him like never before in his career. Now that of Begur, which With this victory she slips into the virtual top 9 of the WTAa rival awaits, who will emerge from the duel between Aryna Sabalenka and Anastasia Pavyuchenkova.
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