Paula Badosa did not have a good day this Monday at the US Open. The Spanish, who came to the tournament with enthusiasm and had before her an affordable rival, Varvara Gracheva, crashed against the 20-year-old Russian and 102nd in the world, who won in two sets (6-4 and 7-5 in 1h: 35). His poor service performance, including eight double faults, and a high number of unforced errors (30) condemned Badosa, who also could not make it past the first round last year, although his opponent was larger, the then seventh from the Kiki Bertens ranking.
In the first set, Paula conceded a break in the fourth game, but she did not lose face in the match and equalized to make it 4-4 later. But when he served to equal five, he lost his serve and the set again.
The second heat started well for the Barcelona, who broke to get 2-1 and serve. He consolidated with his service and when everything pointed to leveling the duel, he wasted three set points and from there he sank. Gracheva, with a 3-0 run, took the victory and will face the French Kristina Mladenovic on Wednesday, who beat the American guest Halley Baptiste 7-5, 6-2. Badosa did not hide her sadness at the press conference: “I'm really disappointed because I didn't play as expected. I had hopes of doing well and nothing went as planned. I couldn't control the second serve, especially in the important moments, when I had an advantage in the second set, for example, “she said when asked by AS. The WTA number 94 has no choice but to go ahead and play a lot. “I'm going to be in all the tournaments there are, Istanbul, Rome, Strasbourg and Roland Garros.”