MADRID, 22 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa qualified this Friday for the semifinals of the tournament in Stuttgart (Germany), scoring for the WTA and which is played on clay indoors, after defeating the Tunisian Ons Jabeur 7-6 (8), 1-6, 6-3, a victory that will allow her to become the new number two in the world next Monday.
The Catalan, second seeded, had another tough match lasting more than two hours, which she added to the two and a half hours of her debut against the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, but which she was able to finally solve thanks to her mental strength.
The clash with Jabeur, seventh favourite, was very hard from the start and was reflected in the eight breaks, four for each, that occurred. The Tunisian even had a serve to close the quarter with 5-4 and 6-5, but Badosa found a way to solve these two complicated situations.
The sleeve was finally decided in the ‘sudden death’ in favor of the Spanish, who raised two set balls and won her prize for her resistance for more than an hour, an effort that seemed to pay off because Jabeur overwhelmed her in the second set in less than half an hour.
Then, Badosa knew how to find energy to become competitive again in a third set where her rival forgave four break balls with 1-1, while the Catalan did not and broke blank in the sixth game and went 4-2. Jabeur was still able to replicate that ‘break’, but the number three in the world did not feel the blow and broke again to finally sentence with her serve her pass to the semifinals where she will face the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, her partner in doubles .
On the other hand, in the Istanbul tournament, also on clay, but outdoors, Sara Sorribes from Castellón, seeded seventh, was unable to reach the semifinals after falling clearly to Russian Anastasia Potapova for a double 6- two.