Rome Italy) – Unlike the men’s competition, which only starts on Wednesday, the women’s main draw of the combined tournament in Rome has already started this Tuesday. In the most anticipated game of the day, the Spanish Paula Badosa, who was not in a great phase and is now only 126th in the ranking, ended up surprising the young Russian Mirra Andreeva, 17 years old and 40th in the world, with a 6/2 victory and 6/3 in 1h34.
Badosa’s triumph is only her second over a top 50 opponent in 2024, after beating Russian Anastasia Pavlyunchenkova, then ranked 46th, in the second round of the Australian Open. This was also the first Spanish match for 26 years after announcing the end of relationship with Greek Stefanos Tsitsipaslast weekend.
Quadrifinalist at Foro Italico last season, Badosa is competing in the competition for the third time in his career. She also made the round of 16 in 2022. In the next round, she will have an even greater challenge against the North American Emma Navarro, ranked 21st on Roman clay and who is coming off great results this year, such as the Hobart title, the Auckland semis and San Diego and the quarterfinals in Indian Wells, where she beat world number 2, Aryna Sabalenka, in the round of 16. The duel will be unprecedented on the circuit.
For Badosa, facing the North American at this moment could be a good way to gain confidence. “I love playing against the best. I recently faced Aryna [Sabalenka], Danielle Collins and now Navarro. I think they’re really good combinations to see where I’m at right now. Emma plays really well on clay and is having an amazing year so I hope it’s a good battle,” she said.
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Based on last year’s campaign, the Spaniard has 215 points to defend in Rome and for now is suffering an even greater drop in the ranking, reaching 163rd place, her worst mark since September 2018, when she was 183rd in the world. On the other hand, she has already ranked second in the WTA in 2022.
Española talks about difficult times with injuries
In the last two years, Badosa has suffered from many physical problems, with muscle injuries and more recently a back injury, leaving him away from the circuit for more than six months. Trying to get back into top shape, the former world number 2 commented on how difficult this process has been.
“Lately I’ve been very physically unwell, reacting very slowly and I think my body hasn’t been able to play for a long time, so this has also stressed me out a lot and affected my self-esteem. I’ve been working a lot on this. In Madrid I didn’t do well enough, but these last two weeks I’ve been working a lot on my physical side, now that my back is responding well. I hope I can get back to the top soon,” she said.
“To be honest, I’m trying to enjoy the court again because I’ve already suffered a lot, I’m not going to lie. So I want to play as much as possible, to see if I can play two or three games in a row, because it’s been a long time since I achieved that. Maybe since Rome last year, when the injury occurred. It’s been a year since I won more than two or three matches in a row. That is my main objective now”, added the Spaniard.
Italians are eliminated in the debut
The tournament didn’t start well for the hosts. In the two clashes between Italians and foreigners, the visitors came out on top. First, Martina Trevisan, who was a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2022, ended up being beaten by Kazakh Yulia Putintseva by 6/3 and 6/4. The world number 41 will be the first opponent of the American Sloane Stephens, seeded 31.
Guest Lisa Pigato won just one game, fellow American Shelby Rogers, who scored an easy 6/1 and 6/0 in 61 minutes. Rogers will now face Chinese Qinwen Zheng, the seventh main entrant in the competition.
