Cristina Bucsa: without networks, without sponsors and in the third round of the Australian Open

Spanish tennis was having a hard time finding joy at the Australian Open.

, the best racket in each frame, dropped out due to injury.

lost to

in a match that seemed controlled and

was injured against

.

She played all three sets because she's Nadal, but her hip was torturing him.

One bad news after another came from Melbourne until

suddenly appeared .

The Cantabrian tennis player of Moldovan origin (Chisinau, 1998) starred in one of the great surprises of the day, coming back against

, champion of the US Open in 2019, to get into the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

A marathon of almost three hours in which she even saved a match in the tie-break of the second round to win 2-6, 7-6 (7) and 6-4.

And now, the most difficult yet, the number one in the world,

But who is Cristina Bucsa?

Don't blame yourself if the name catches you off guard because she has so far moved under the radar.

She still lives in

, the land to which he migrated with his family when he was three years old, and where he started playing at five, instead of moving to one of the great tennis poles in our country.

And he trains with his father, Ion, who can also double as a physio and massage therapist, instead of looking for an elite academy with more resources.

Her father takes care of the physical part of her and she,

, the mental one.

Bucsa does not have

, nor does

, and

only uses it to contact other players to train with.

She doesn't have sponsors either.

In a tennis where the players use their model for the first time in each major tournament, Cristina Bucsa is playing the Australian Open with

.

Models and brands that also change from one game to another.

"I like to be free. There is nothing better than freedom. And I don't need a lot of clothes either.

It's just that it's not a big expense on clothes. If a sponsor comes , we will talk to him," he confessed a few days ago in an interview in the newspaper

.

And seeing his performance in Melbourne, it's not hard to imagine that those sponsors are already picking up the phone.

Cristina Bucsa, on her knees after losing a point to Bianca Andreescu.Ng Han GuanAP

Cristina Bucsa is being one of the great revelations of these first steps at the Australian Open.

In the last match of the qualifying phase, against the Japanese

, she raised nine set points to close the first set;

in the first round, against the German Eva Lys, she came back with authority after losing the first set (2-6, 6-0, 6-2);

and this Tuesday, in the second, she returned to come back against Andreescu.

One show after another of strength.

Perhaps the final eruption of a career that has simmered slower than usual.

Cristina Bucsa has not won a singles title since an ITF in Nantes in 2019 (in November she did triumph in the doubles at the Valencia Open), and

(last August in Canada).

In Grand Slam tournaments, he had made it past qualifying in five of the last six, although he had never made it past the first round until last year's US Open.

Bucsa, who shares Moldovan origin with the Catalan

, arrived in Melbourne as number 100 in the WTA ranking, the best position of her career.

She perhaps for the last time without networks, without sponsors, and off the radar.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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