He leaves Paula Badosa of Rome with a defeat in the round of 16, but which, over the days, will become more positive than negative. Because there are almost two and a half hours of good competitiveness against Coco Gauff and because at the Foro Italico she has undertaken a journey of four consecutive quality games, something that the Catalan had not achieved since just a year ago, when she suffered the back injury.
Coco Gauff 5 6 6 Paula Badosa 7 4 1
Partial joy therefore for Badosa, who does not dare to set his imagination too high now that Roland Garros begins because he has learned that this back injury is a round trip. Able to allow him important and demanding games like this week, but also to darken his present suddenly and when he least expects it.
I pointed this out in Madrid, when I arrived resigned, almost more than frustrated, after a season of possibilities that fell by the wayside. And not only because of that stress fracture in a vertebra, but because of everything around it: the stops and starts that make your tennis and your results not find regularity, and that makes your body complain at other points when you activate ambition and demand.
Because of this demand he ended up losing breath in the match against Gauff, 3 in the world. Because there had been three sets against Emma Navarro (1-6, 6-4 and 6-2) and against Diana Schneider (5-7, 6-4 and 6-4) in the previous matches and always with the obligation to come back one first set. And against the American she paid for her fatigue, great in the duel in the first set, with more ups and downs in the second, especially with the serve, which Gauff also suffered, and devastated in the third.
Equality was the tone in that first act in which Badosa showed one more point of aggressiveness to torment Gauff’s right. He found gold because the 3 in the world chained many errors with that blow and achieved several break options that he certified in the seventh game, even though he had to overcome his own nerves and continue working on a new break option. He no longer forgave.
The regularity of the first set became irregular in the second, with a multitude of errors and alternate broken service turns. Despite Gauff’s six double faults and his own drive, capable of raising a 2-4, Badosa could not this time take advantage of his rival’s weakness and ended up conceding the set, already prey to the fatigue accumulated this week.
Although he had a break at the beginning in the final set, the six hours that he had spent on his legs from the previous two days ended up taking a toll on his tennis, which lowered the level and increased the error count to lose 1-6. A somewhat harsh result for her bravery, but brave nonetheless in the global calculation this week in Rome to fuel the illusion.
2024-05-13 17:19:14
#Badosa #runs #air #Gauff
