Updated:06/06/2021 15:14h
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To appreciate tennis in all its splendor, nothing better than seeing it live, of course. To appreciate it in every detail, tracks like Suzanne Lenglen, she is as flirtatious as she is close to the audience. At that distance, everything sounds more, better, the masterful blows, the failures, the conversations in the box and even the interiors. At that distance, the tennis of Paula Badosa She is spectacular, very powerful with service, very agile to vary heights, powerful forehand and backhand, aggressive and correct in her decisions. In the quarterfinals with a tennis that seduces and captivates and convinces, although there is also room for some occasional disconnections. She overcame a match ball in the third round and today the Spanish comes a step further at Roland Garros than she conquered in 2020. There was no longer a towel to hide the emotion. Under construction that year, complete rebuild for this one.
This is how he handled Marketa Vondrousova (6-4, 3-6 and 6-2), similar in style, in left-handed, but with more gaps, especially annoying with the sun that fell fully on her eyes when it was time to take out. More than ten times the ball was thrown to pick it up again without hitting it, blinded by that sun that is strongly felt in Paris. And although the Czech managed to break Badosa’s serve in the fourth game, she later gave him a pair of double faults to return to the equalizer.
From 4-4, Badosa gave the lug, driven by that very fine and stylish backhand and with a serve that many and many would like. Blank won two innings and pushed to get 5-4. There are also misunderstandings, and fears and some insecurity, such as that misadjusted setback to the corridor or two consecutive services that went a meter away. But from 15-40, Badosa was once again that powerful tennis player, to the forehand and backhand lines, and with a loose and soft wrist to adjust a spectacular globazo with which to close the first set in his favor. The ‘I can’t move’ was heard as well in the fifth game, as the ‘c’mon’ to catch the set in 39 minutes. Things in the vicinity of this track.
The ball is heard as well when it enters, as when the blows are misaligned. The successes and the mistakes. The shouts of encouragement and conversations with insults and anger, which multiplied in the second set on Badosa’s side because the wrist no longer seemed so firm, nor the grip, so effective.
Badosa looked at his hand, ‘Why don’t you adjust the shots now?’, angry at losing serve in the seventh game when everything seemed under control. Because Vondrousova did not do much more than in the first set, but she remained correct in her shots. Spanish the rush could at times, wanting to adjust so much to the lines that some went by a millimeter and some other, by half a meter.
And so, at the hour and a quarter, equality on the scoreboard, while in the Philippe Chatrier, the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova alighted a whole Victoria Azarenka, two-time Australian Open champion, three times a finalist in the US Open, once a semifinalist in Paris. In the Lenglen, enraged Badosa, squeezed 30-30 in the second game of the third set. Although she had never faced the Czech, she had already had two sets to study her game, and her physical strength. The opportunity was given to find an early break and found it with a gift, double fault and 2-0 to put the direct to the quarters end. One more step than what had arrived in 2020.
But the 2020 Badosa was under construction and in 2021 it is fully rebuilt: semifinals in Charleston, semifinals at the Mutua Madrid Open, first WTA title in Serbia. Tamara Zidansek awaits to continue exploring limits at Roland Garros.
“Today is my first day at Suzanne Lenglen, thank you all very much for coming. Marketa is a great tennis player. And the gravel tour has helped me to gain confidence in these games, “he explained before starting with a couple of phrases in French to win even more the affection of the track, so close to everything.
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