Paula Badosa leaves the Beijing court this Saturday with a crooked gesture, mumbling, upset and defeated by Coco Gauff in a duel (4-6, 6-4 and 6-2, in 2h 19m) that at times she held with both hands but that, strangely, in the end it has escaped him. He had it there, very close, but when push came to shove, a bloody lapse in the second set—break up and four options to the wind to get the second—has played a trick on him that deprives him of the final of the tournament. and that truncates their happy moment. Reasons to believe: he has the game, a defined plan. Also to regret: the jump is resisted. The Spaniard (26 years old) has the serve, blows and overflow to stand up to the best, in the case of the North American, but this praiseworthy climb that she has been leading since May still needs one last knock that will definitely boost her confidence. That’s it. He will not skimp on the effort.
But that anger at the farewell is inevitable, because if he had beaten Gauff he would have been within reach of his second victory in a thousand, after the one obtained three years ago in Indian Wells, and would have consolidated the exponential growth of recent times in the form of results. However, he did not round out in that delicate moment of the second round and once the first blow was landed, he began to deflate emotionally. From that conceded break, a partial 10-2 favorable to his rival, who had the virtue of not giving up despite the fact that until that moment he was constantly competing in tow and without the necessary tools to turn around a very adverse for her. Lost between errors with the drive and a very poor service, soiled by 11 double faults, she took advantage of the reprieve to get up as only great players do, with the armor of the factory guerrillas. From there to the end of the set, Badosa only added one of the 12 points at play.
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A shame, considering that he had governed the game with authority and that he continued to extend the suggestive proposal exhibited in the previous days, with harmonious and dominating tennis, expressed with criteria and the characteristic blows of the axe. So far, a detail that does not point so much to the technical as to the expression, to that hieratic gesture that prevents the person opposite from figuring out what is going on in that head. Given to offering too many clues through gestures, the Catalan has significantly corrected her defect and performs with greater temperance. This is demonstrated by the response to the break conceded in the eighth game of the match, when Gauff pushed and pushed until she won the prize for the eighth attempt, her eleventh of the match. Immediately, the American was met with a furious retort. Once that knot was resolved and the first set tied, everything pointed in one direction, but Badosa put his foot in a hole.
Gauff returns the ball during the match against Badosa.ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES (EFE)
He had done it like angels, his improvement in mobility was also perceptible and notable, but those four attempts to make it 4-1 were wrong and he suffered an unexpected blow and punctured; He hinted at a restart in the third, returning the initial break, but it stayed there. From that moment on, Gauff’s wall; that is, balls and more balls inside. And here is the big difference: his rival knew how to navigate through troubled waters all the time. It will be the sixth in the world, then, who will compete this Sunday for the title (1:00 p.m., Teledeporte) with the Czech Karolina Muchova (6-3 and 6-4 against Qinwen Zheng). Meanwhile, Badosa is already focusing on Wuhan, the next and immediate station. He does so on the optimistic wave that he caught at the beginning of August, with 28 wins in the last 36 games he has played, and in a situation that was unsuspected until recently; It is virtually 15th in the ranking, when a few months ago it was outside the top-100. But he still knows little about it.
So she regrets: it is her fourth defeat in five WTA 1000 semifinals, second this year after Cincinnatti. The signs are encouraging, but once the chronic ailment she suffers from in her back has been tamed and which kept her from the sweet zone a year and a half ago, she continues to impose herself the extra that she still lacks. The stepping stone to truly refute the strongest.
ALCARAZ, ON THE FAST TRACK IN SHANGHAI
A. C.
Just three days after winning the title for the first time in Beijing, Carlos Alcaraz started his career on the right foot in the Shanghai Masters 1000, the penultimate of the season. The Spaniard, 21 years old and number two in the world, defeated the local youngster Juncheng Shang by a double 6-2 (in 1h 16m). The Murcian did it, maintaining the good tone of these days.
“I feel very good, both physically and in tennis. “I’m hitting the ball very well,” he said after beating Shang, a promising player (19 years old and 51st in the world) whom he had already defeated this year in Australia. This Sunday (not before 12:30, Movistar+) he will meet another Chinese tennis player, Yibing Wu, 24 years old and 560th in the world.
The Mallorcan Jaume Munar lost to Jiri Lehecka (7-6(6) and 6-4) and the ATP number one, the Italian Jannik Sinner, beat Taro Daniel (6-1 and 6-4). Novak Djokovic also made his debut, superior to Alex Michelsen (7-6(3) and 7-6(9).
