Badosa leaves Spain with no female representation in Australia

The Girona native bid farewell to Melbourne Park with a good feeling after being out of competition for six months due to a back stress injury, posting two big victories over American Taylor Townsend and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the early rounds. A worthy fight against the reborn Anisimova, who showcased the tennis that delighted the people of Paris after reaching the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2019.

After deciding to take a break and step away from competition due to issues with her mental health, Anisimova said: “Resetting, spending time at home helped me. I’m very happy to be back.”

Badosa opened the day at 11 a.m. in a half-empty John Cain Arena and got more lively as the matches progressed. The Catalan started at a devilish pace, not allowing the subdued Anisimova to take the initiative until she made it 4-1. The American then woke up and brought out a better version of himself that helped him compete in the semifinals against underdog Badosa, who had become a mere spectator at Roland Garros (2019) in the past.

Anisimova was responsible for executing winners, but she also made unforced errors. But the ‘winners’ finished prevailed despite double fault problems until complete the comeback to the final 7-5After taking her fifth set point on serve.

The 22-year-old American girl, who is currently outside the top 400, completed the first set with serious pain in her abdominal area and received a warning from the chair umpire for not complying with the 25 seconds between the serve and the points. , to heal as a result of the problems they are experiencing. The first set ended with 24 winners from Anisimova, 12 from the Spaniards, 22 from the Americans, and 8 simple errors from Girona; This was a statistic that revealed the North American’s extremely aggressive approach.

There weren’t many ups and downs in the second set; Both tennis players showed more solvency in the first set and therefore more security when it came to keeping games on serve, until the inspired Anisimova made three uncontested comebacks for 3-3. get a ‘break’ that will result final for final 6-4. The Spanish player completed the match with 18 wins, which contrasted with Anisimova’s 40 wins.

Badosa rose almost 18 places to 82nd on the WTA list after missing competitions last year due to injury. The New Jersey native’s next opponent will be the Belarusian and current champion Aryna Sabalenka. Belarusians had no mercy for Ukraine Lesia Tsurenko (28) after confirming an offer 6-0 and 6-0 echo 52 minutes left to advance to the round of 16. This marked the first time in twenty years in the tournament’s history that a player advanced to the round with this result.

Rod Laver fans, who had to wear their jersey due to low temperatures in Melbourne this Friday morning, witnessed the current champion siege against the in great form Tsurenko, who finished the match with 19 wins and 9 unforced errors. After eliminating Spaniard Rebeka Masarova in two sets. The Belarusian, who has lost only six matches and no sets in the previous rounds, will have to face American Anisimova, one of her excellent betes noires, who has beaten her in four of her previous five matches.