No.27 Paula Badosa put in a dominant efficiency in windy circumstances to defeat No.15 seed Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-2 to advance to her first Spherical of 16 on the BNP Paribas Open. The Spaniard will face both French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova or Amanda Anisimova.
In a formidable show in cool, swirling circumstances that wreaked havoc on servers all day, Badosa saved the one break level she confronted all evening to go unbroken towards the 17-year-old American, whereas additionally dominating on her return video games. The match opened with 4 holds of serve till Badosa lastly broke by for the primary of her 4 breaks of serve within the match, breaking Gauff at love to steer 3-2.
Badosa broke once more for a 5-2 lead earlier than rain compelled a stoppage in play. However the prolonged delay did nothing to unmoor the 23-year-old Spaniard, who has loved a breakout season in 2021. When play resumed, she coolly held at 15 to shut out the opening set after 27 minutes of play.
“I do know she’s a tremendous participant,” Badosa mentioned. “She’s going to be even higher. However I performed her doubles, so kind of I do know what I may discover at the moment. I do know she has a tremendous serve. I knew I needed to be fairly strong on mine as effectively. A tremendous backhand. She’s very athletic as effectively. So I used to be anticipating a troublesome match.
With the set in hand, Badosa continued to handle the circumstances by a clear, scientific efficiency that in the end wanted simply 54 minutes. Gauff struggled to seek out her rhythm, misfiring on 28 unforced errors in comparison with Badosa’s 7.
Badosa made 71% of her first serves and misplaced simply 9 factors on her serve all evening. She saved her targets huge on her return video games to strain Gauff off the baseline and took benefit of Gauff’s second serve, profitable 12 of her 17 second serve return factors.
“I do know the circumstances at the moment had been robust,” Badosa mentioned. “Generally when you do not really feel you will have good emotions from the start, typically it is robust. I believe that is what occurred to her. I performed fairly effectively. I stayed very centered and strong, and I believe that was the important thing of the match.”
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