MADRID, 19 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa could not qualify this Friday for the round of 16 of the Australian Open, the first 'Grand Slam' of the season, after losing to the American Amanda Anisimova in two sets 7-5, 6-4 in hour and meeting average.
In her fourth match since last Wimbledon, the Catalan player could not repeat her best result, in 2022, and saw her path cut short by the 22-year-old American, also back on the circuit after deciding to take a break last year to take care of his mental health and that seems to have returned with the strength of a few years ago when it burst forth with force.
Currently number 442 in the world, Anisimova reached the 'Top 20' at just 17 years old and played in the semifinals of Roland Garros in 2019. Now, she is trying to get back to being with the best and against Badosa she showed a great level of tennis, with powerful blows from the back of the court that cost her to counteract the Spanish, who had her best options in the first set and who needed to have a better day with the serve, one of her weapons, since she barely connected 60 percent of firsts.
The American finished the match with 40 winners due to 29 unforced errors, doing a lot of damage with both her drive and her two-handed backhand, and took better advantage of her break options than the former world number two, who finished with 18 'winners', the aspect that surely marked the duel because they didn't 'give away' too much either (10 unforced errors).
But despite these statistics, the start of the clash belonged to Badosa, who began by breaking her rival's first two serves and, leaving one on the way as well, took a promising 4-1 lead, at which point the match began to change. . Anisimova won four games in a row and served to close the set, which the Spaniard avoided with a new 'break', of little value because she gave it up again in the next one and the American, after raising a 15-40 and one more breaking ball , managed to close the set.
This advantage gave Anisimova a plus for a second round that she controlled much better and where she continued to hammer the Spanish (16 winners and only seven unforced errors). The American 'shielded' her serve, with which she only lost five points, and that was enough for her to make the most of a bad seventh game by the Catalan. Badosa gave up his service in 'white' and was no longer able to recover the ground to say goodbye to Melbourne, where only Carlos Alcaraz from Murcia remains in the individual draw.