Madrid Open: Paula Badosa eases past Coco Gauff; faces Maria Sakkari next
Apr 30, 2023
Madrid [Spain], April 30 : No.26 seed Paula Badosa on Saturday produced a masterclass performance at the Manolo Santana Stadium with a dominant 6-3, 6-0 third-round victory over No.6 Coco Gauff of the United States at the Madrid Open.
Badosa, the highest-ranked Spanish player, advanced to the Round of 16 with the 71-minute win over last year's French Open finalist Gauff.
Badosa will next face No.9 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece, who outlasted another Spaniard, wild-card Rebeka Masarova, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Early on, both players attacked while returning, and each of the first five games had break points. Badosa gained momentum by consolidating for a score of 4-2 with a strong rally forehand winner on game point after emerging from that stretch up a break at 3-2.
Badosa maintained her advantage until the score was 5-3, when she forced four straight forehand errors from Gauff to break the American at love and end the first game. In the first set, Badosa made four of her six break points.
Two games later, the Spaniard broke Gauff for a 2-0 lead in the second set after inducing a fresh round of forehand mistakes. From there, Badosa continued to dominate, winning the next eight games. Returning the second service from Gauff, Badosa prevailed 75% of the time.
"I'm proud of myself. Matches like this ... in this court with all the crowd supporting you, it makes me feel like everything, it's worth it," WTA.com quoted Badosa as saying after her win.
"Maria, she's a very good player, very intense. I really love how she competes. I really like players like that, that they give all on court, and they go for it no matter what. I really respect these kind of players," Badosa said.
