The Spanish overcomes the hard test of Claire Liu and meets Bencic in the quarterfinals
MADRID, 8 Apr. (SportsFinding) –
The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa added her second victory this week in the tournament in Charleston (United States), of the WTA 500 category and which is played on clay, by winning (3-6, 7-6(8), 6-1 ) to the American Claire Liu in a hard-fought comeback.
The Catalan, who opens her third position in the world ranking at the South Carolina event, had to bring out all her tennis and impose herself with her stripes on a Liu who battled for two and a half hours. The Swiss Belinda Bencic will be her rival in the quarterfinals.
The American had beaten the Spanish in the two previous meetings between the two, but the Badosa of 2017 and 2018 is not the one of now. The second-seeded in Charleston, where last year she made some ‘semis’ to start showing what was coming – three titles since then and third in the world -, showed her progression with a game of mettle and quality .
Liu scored the first set with the only game that left a ‘break’ option, in the eighth. Badosa raised the level in the second set but the American did not lower it and clung to the green earth of Charleston with incredible defense. The Spanish did not finish taking off and, after an exchange of ‘breaks’, she decided the sudden death in favor of Badosa after four set points.
The American’s resistance dropped completely in the third set and Badosa managed a 4-0 to finish changing the script. With a head also to finish off the job, the Spaniard completed an important victory to continue taking steps forward in making contact with clay this season.