Paula Badosa
starred in the big surprise on Friday in the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Charleston (United States) by defeating the number one, Australian
Ashleigh Barty
by 6-4, 6-3.
Her rival in the semifinals will be the 23-year-old Russian,
Veronika Kudermetova
, world number 38, who beat the American
Sloane Stephens
6-3, 6-4
,
57 in the standings.
Badosa, with aggressive tennis from the back of the court and a good serve, did not let the world number one react at any time and achieved the most important victory of her career.
Before the start of the tournament, Badosa had never beaten a Top 20 ranked player, but against Barty she was always superior.
Badosa, 23, on the green clay of Charleston gave a whole recital of good selection in his shots, well placed and that allowed him to be in control of the rhythm of the game and the match.
The victory is Badosa's second over a seeded player this week, after defeating the world's number 5 and twelfth seeded Belinda Bencic in the second round.
"I was quite nervous today, but I think I served very well and I think that was the key to the game," Badosa said on the court after the game.
"It was tough but I was there until the last moment and I managed to win."
The former junior French Open champion served seven aces and broke Barty's serve another five, beating the current WTA leader in the match.
The world number 71 is the lowest ranked player to beat Barty since September 2019.
Saved 12 break balls
Badosa saved 12 of the 14 break points he faced in the 76-minute game and set the tone early on by saving a pair in his first service game.
Barty nearly tied in the first set after falling on a 2-5 hole, twice building a 0-40 lead when Badosa served a one-set lead.
Although he successfully broke serve in the eighth game, he was unable to repeat the feat in the tenth, and Badosa finally secured the decisive first set after nearly three-quarters of an hour of action on center court.
The two players traded breaks in the first two games of the second set, and each denied the other two break opportunities in the fifth and sixth games, respectively.
That's when Badosa walked away, building on the momentum of his 3-3 control to finally win the final four games of the match.
"I am very proud to have been here playing every point no matter what. I was 0-40 at 4-5 in the first set and I came back," added Badosa.
"In the second set, she also had break points and I was very calm. I tried to serve very well and it came out perfect."
Although Barty nearly doubled Badosa's total winning shots in the match at 34 to 19, she also committed twice as many unforced errors as the Spanish tennis player, 24 to 12, respectively.
With the precedents against
Badosa, who will face 15th seed Kudermetova for the third time as a professional, has lost the previous two matches to the Russian player.
The other semifinal will be played by Tunisian
Ons Jabeur,
twelfth seeded, against Montenegrin
Danka Kovinic
, number 91 in the world.
Jabeur defeated the American
Gori Gauff
, the world number 36
in the quarterfinals
, 6-3, 6-3 in just one hour and 20 minutes of action.
While Kivinic, 26, had to work three sets after losing the first 6-7 (2), 7-5 and 6-1 to Kazakh
Yulia Putintseva
, eleventh seeded, and number 31 in the world , which finally gave way after playing two hours and 52 minutes.
Both games are scheduled for the day of this Saturday.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
See links of interest
2021 business calendar
Home THE WORLD TODAY
DSC Arminia Bielefeld - Sport-Club Freiburg
Barça - FC Bayern Munich
Huesca - Elche
Fulham - Wolverhampton Wanderers
Tenerife - Sporting de Gijón