Paula Badosa came back, and she did it with a loss. After a very difficult 2023 marked by injuries, the Catalan reappeared on Monday, falling in the Adelaide tournament in a difficult match of almost three hours against the American Bernarda Pera by 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The match started well for the former world number 2, breaking her rival’s serve in the second game. However, the joy was short-lived for Badosa, who lost serve in the next game and saw how Pera managed to level the score at 2-2.
But the woman from Begur was not willing to prolong the reaction of the American and raised her level of tennis to take the initiative again.
Very aggressive from the back of the court and making some unforced errors, Badosa again got the break (4-2) that would be definitive. His stability on serve allowed him to maintain the advantage until 6-3, where he closed a convincing first set in which he once again recalled the player who established himself in the elite in 2021.
However, things took a turn for the worse in the second set.. The American took a step forward and achieved an early break that the Spaniard was unable to recover.
More erratic from the back of the court and adding more errors with each game, Badosa was unable to react to Pera’s more aggressive tenniswho closed the second set with another break (2-6).
Doubts returned to the head of the Catalan player, who had to face two break points on his first serve of the third set. He saved them and then managed to break Pera’s serve in the next game to open a gap on the scoreboard (3-1) that seemed definitive.
Nope. Mistakes weighed heavily on Badosa againwho this time were unable to overcome a 0-40 and saw how Pera regained the ground and leveled the game at 3-3.
A new game started where Nerve control would be the key, and that’s when Badosa lost consciousness again. After leveling 0-40, unforced errors again became too much and cost him a break that turned out to be decisive.
The last attempt to stay afloat was futile and Bernarda Pera closed out the match in the final 6-3. The American will face second seed Jessica Pegula in the second round on Wednesday.
Before the game, Badosa said he was “excited” to start the year after missing the second half of 2023 as a result of a stress fracture in the spine.
“I’ve never been so excited to go back to the start of the year.. I want to get back to my level as soon as possible. “I know it’s hard at first, many months without playing,” he said.
Badosa, 26 years old and currently number 68 in the WTA rankings, spoke about the physical problems she suffered: “It’s an injury that you can’t really control.. At first I thought that if I did a lot of treatment time I would get better faster, but then I found out that it’s just about being patient and letting it heal on its own.”
“It is a very slow process. Accepting all this is very difficult, especially mentally., because as I always say I love to play tennis and I love to compete. “All of a sudden, one day I had to stop completely and I had to stay on the couch, so imagine how boring that was,” he said.
He also indicated: “I think now maybe I’ll appreciate being in every tournament, every match, every round I play less.. “I’m very excited to be here again.”
Source: La Verdad
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