MADRID 21 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa managed to qualify this Tuesday for the first time in her career for the semifinals of a ‘Grand Slam’ after beating the American Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in two sets 7-5, 6- 4.
The Catalan player finally managed to break her ceiling in a ‘big’ game. She had only tasted two quarterfinals, at Roland Garros in 2022, the year after the emergence that led her to be number two in the world, and at the United States Open in 2024, the year of resurgence after an ordeal of physical problems with her back, and despite having the third seed in front of her, she showed that she is capable of being among the best again.
The eleventh seed had lost in her last two duels with Gauff, a tennis player who arrived in Melbourne after having won her last twelve matches, but whom she knew how to control to join Arancha Sánchez-Vicario, Conchita Martínez and Garbiñe Muguruza as semifinalists Spanish both in the first ‘Grand Slam’ of the season and in a ‘big’. Now, she will try to emulate them and also reach the final, for which she must defeat the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, world number one, current champion and friend, or the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The Spanish tennis player knew how to control well the emotions that had taken a toll on her last summer against Emma Navarro in Flushing Meadows and also took advantage of an erratic day for Gauff, who had over 40 unforced errors and was not fine with his service, with six double faults and only 35 percent of points won with second serve, which gave Badosa many options to the rest in a match that he had dominated, but in which he had to press before the threat of reaction of the American.
The match was very even, mainly in the first round. The Catalan was very solid in her service and that avoided problems, although she did not take advantage of a valuable 15-40 at the beginning of the match that could have put her ahead. Gauff settled on the court, but continued without disturbing the rest and Badosa stood firm to find a new option again when the tie-break had already been secured.
The American signed a game to be forgotten with four errors and gave up the serve and the first set, a blow that she blamed because she entered into a bad dynamic that benefited her rival, who was much calmer, but who could not take good advantage of an early break because he immediately delivered his first serve of the match.
However, that did not finish ‘connecting’ the 2023 US Open champion, who continued to be inconsistent in her tennis. Badosa did not miss the opportunity and chained two breaks to almost qualify for the semifinals. But at 5-2, he was able to feel some of the pressure and gave some life to his rival before sentencing with a final level game with two aces and a winning forehand.