Badosa beats Fruhvirtova to reach first Miami quarterfinal; to play Pegula

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WTA/Jimmie48

advanced to her first Miami Open quarterfinal on Monday night after defeating 16-year-old wildcard , 6-2, 6-3 in the fourth round. The Spaniard will face 16th seed after the American booked her spot after retired down 6-0.

Having won the title in Sydney and progressed to the semifinals last week in Indian Wells, Badosa has reached her third quarterfinal of the season. Only World No.2 Iga Swiatek

(5) has more quarterfinals in 2022. Badosa's previous best result in Miami came last year, where she made the third round.

"Today was a very tough day for me," Badosa said. "I didn't wake up feeling very well so I didn't know if I would be able to finish the match. I always say I want to be a fighter no matter what so that's what I did today. I kept fighting and I don't really know how I won. But I'm very happy."

Miami Open Quarterfinals:

[22] Bencic vs. [WC] Saville
Osaka vs. [9] Collins
—
[5] Badosa vs. [16] Pegula
[28] Kvitova vs. [2] Swiatek
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 29, 2022

Coming off wins over Marie Bouzkova

and , Badosa faced the tricky task of facing a new face on the tour in Fruhvirtova. In the Round of 16 in her first appearance at a WTA 1000 event, Fruhvirtova scored wins over 20th seed and 12th seed (by retirement) to become the youngest woman to reach the Round of 16 at the Miami Open since Tatiana Golovin in 2004. She was also the first woman under 17-years-old to win three main draw matches at a WTA 1000 event since last year in Dubai.

Despite feeling under the weather during the match, Badosa dug in her heels and ground down Fruhvirtova over the course of their 82-minute physical clash. The key to Badosa's win was her physicality, as she endured Fruhvirtova's impressive baseline consistency while coming up with her best tennis when she needed it most.

Imagine coming up with that winner on the 35th(!) shot 🥶

Take a bow, @paulabadosa!#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/8VcOvfPMB8
— wta (@WTA) March 29, 2022

Badosa, who will rise into the Top 3 of the WTA Rankings after Miami, converted five of six break points in the match while saving five of six break points on her own serve. She finished with 19 winners to 17 unforced errors. Fruhvirtova hit 13 winners to 20 unforced errors.

Pegula advances to first Miami Open quarterfinal

Badosa will face World No.22 Pegula for a spot in the semifinals. The American won the first six games of her Round of 16 rematch with Anhelina Kalinina

before the Ukrainian retired. With wins over former champion Sloane Stephens and No.17 seed , Pegula has not lost a set en route to the fifth WTA 1000 quarterfinal of her career.