Paula Badosa has shown in her debut at the Qatar TotalEnergie in Doha, first WTA 1,000 tournament of the season, that his loss in the first round of the Dubai tournament was just a small blur in a great start to 2022 for the Spanish.
Badosa, who premiered her highest ranking to date after rising to number 4 in the WTA ranking, She got even for her missteps in Dubai with a convincing victory against the Danish Clara Tauson by 6-1 and 6-2 in an hour and nine minutes of play.
The Spanish was a real gale from the start of the game and thanks to her success on serve (9 aces and 88% first serve points won) successfully pressured Tauson into return, causing the Danish lost her first two serves and that Badosa was put with 5-0 in favor in the first set and with three set points to the rest that he could not specify. He did do it with his serve to second to put the game on track.
In the second round Tauson was firmer with his service against a Badosa who did not give the rest options and who broke the Dane’s serve on two other occasions. With 5-2 and serve Badosa had to save two break balls before closing the set and the match with the first ball that she had 6-2. Badosa will face American Coco Gauff in the round of 16 (she beat France’s Caroline Garcia 6-2, 7-6 (3)) on her way to her second WTA 1,000 after lifting the title last year in Indian Wells.
Krejcikova advances as Kvitova withdraws due to injury
In the rest of the matches of the day, the Czech Barbora Krejcikova beat the Polish Magda Linette 6-1 and 6-3 and awaits a rival between the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko and the American Amanda Anisimova. The American Jessica Pegula did not fail either, who beat the Slovenian Kaja Juvan by a double 6-3 to meet in the round of 16 with Ann Li or Maria Sakkari.
Tuesday’s day at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open was marked by withdrawals due to injury. The Czech Petra Kvitova, current champion of the tournament, retired during her match against the Belgian Elise Mertens after losing the first set 7-5 and when she won 1-2 in the second. The Russian Daria Kasatkina also retired, who fell 6-2 and -2 against the Romanian Jaqueline Cristian before leaving.