Badosa: “I didn't expect to play like this so soon and after so many months away”

MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa was “very happy” with her victory this Wednesday in the second round of the Australian Open, the first 'Grand Slam' of the season, especially because she is not expected to play at the level she offered against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova “so soon and after so many months away.”

“The truth is that I am very happy, I think I played very well and I did not expect to play like this so soon and after so many months away. Pavlyuchenkova was a very difficult player, who came from a very good dynamic, very aggressive and I I expected a very difficult match, but the truth is that I played at a very high level,” Badosa said in statements to Eurosport after the match.

The Catalan is happy “especially on a personal level” after spending many months out due to injury. “I really value being here so soon in the first 'Grand Slam' of the year, in the second tournament after 6-7 months, and for me it is like in the end all this time that I have suffered is worth it,” she stressed. .

“I have always pushed myself a lot. I am in the third round and obviously it is a very good result, but I always want more, I have always opted to be in the final rounds of all the tournaments. Now with my ranking perhaps it is more difficult because I will play with seeded players very soon, but I hope I can be seeded soon and be eligible to be in more final rounds,” added the Spaniard.

Badosa made it clear that a break like the one he has suffered “doesn't help at all.” “What can help is that maybe you have another perspective, but the moment you are in the game you completely forget the perspective and in the end you want to win, you get tense anyway,” he said.

“I think that by being away for so long you also lose a lot of competitive rhythm, managing emotions or nerves. In the end, when you are in that dynamic it is perhaps a little easier to handle it, but for now I am happy because I am managing it quite well” added the Spanish woman.

Regarding her next rival, the American Amanda Anisimova, she warned that “she is a very aggressive player, very complicated and uncomfortable as well.” “It's going to be a match where I'm going to have to be equally or more aggressive than today. She's also been winning very good matches, so I'm going to go with great enthusiasm and see how it goes,” she stated.