cruel defeat for Paula Badosa in the face of an erratic Coco Gauff in the semifinals of the China Open. The Spanish showed spectacular tennis, but forgave to the American woman when she was most dying. A fatal mistake that cost him the game.
Badosa’s serve was his best news. His confidence rose with each double fault committed by Gauffwhich was a common trend during the first two sets. 5 only in the first 5 games. The fifth, precisely, led to the ‘break’ in favor of the Spanish, practically given away by the American.
A survival exercise for the first set
Before, the Catalan had saved a 15-40 from the serve, overcoming the first obstacle of the match, which became tense in the eighth game. Badosa saved 10 break ballsplaying with fire and trusting in the mistakes of the American who was visibly frustrated.
In the end the Spanish one burned down. The American brought out her best version to, on the eleventh opportunity to break Badosa’s serve, take the game and return to a tie (4-4).
Nails boards that didn’t last long. The Catalan, far from collapsing, recovered sensations and broke Gauff’s serve again. He served and won a close game to win the first set of the match, lasting almost an hour (6-4).
Badosa’s disappointment
The American continued dying in the serve. His face and those of his team in the box were a drama seeing the double faults that the tennis player committed. Badosa continued in the wake of the outstanding performance, breaking Gauff’s first serve and putting her against the ropes in the second (3-1).
When the American seemed psychologically exhausted, also getting stuck in the net, Badosa not sentencing. He gave an extra life to his rival, who took advantage of it. Gauff was another in the second set, taking points out of the hat and turning the set around (4-5). The Spaniard was totally disillusioned after the American’s comeback.
We only needed to see one last facet of the American against Badosa: the defense. Between the emotional problems of the Catalan and the excellent moment of the American, everything came out for Gauff and led to Paula’s errors, touched and practically sunk while her rival put a painful 4-1 on the scoreboard.
The ending accelerated after two and a half hours of hitting each other back and forth. Badosa closed the match in tow, with three games impossible to overcome due to the resurrection of Gauff, who will play in the final this Sunday.
Muchova defeats local idol Zheng and will face Gauff in the final
The Czech tennis player Karolina Muchova (n.49) beat the Chinese Zheng Qinwen, fifth seed at the China Open, 6-3 and 6-4 this Saturday, and advanced to the final of the tournament, in which She will face the American Coco Gauff this Sunday.
In the first set, Muchova was solid with her serve and achieved a crucial break in the sixth game to go ahead 4-2, after a fall by Zheng that required the intervention of the physiotherapists due to problems in both hands of the current Olympic champion.
