Badosa advances to Washington final; Bouzkova ousts Sabalenka

Paula Badosa

View Profile 's summer resurgence continues at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. Ranked No.62 after suffering a stress fracture in her back last year, the former World No.2 advanced to her first final in over two years after defeating Caroline Dolehide

View Profile 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals in Washington D.C. on Saturday. 

Badosa will face No.43 Marie Bouzkova

View Profile for the title on Sunday. Bouzkova advanced to her second final of the season with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over World No.3 Aryna Sabalenka

View Profile . The win is Bouzkova's first Top 10 win of the season and her best win by ranking since beating Jessica Pegula

View Profile last summer in Cincinnati. 

Badosa opted to skip the Olympics to save her last protected ranking entry for the US Open, and the decision has paid off this week. Just two months ago, Badosa was ranked outside the Top 100 and unsure about the future of her career. After hitting her career-high ranking at No.2 in 2022, Badosa was sidelined for over six months last year as she dealt with her back injury.

Badosa began to turn her season around during the clay season, starting with a run to the Round of 16 in Rome. Then, at Wimbledon, she made the second week of a Slam for the first time since 2022. Now, she will leave America's capital inside the Top 50 for the first time since August of last year. A win on Sunday would net the 26-year-old Spaniard her first Hologic WTA Tour title since 2022 Sydney.

Into the main draw as a wild card, Badosa's tournament debut has included wins over Sofia Kenin

View Profile , Emma Raducanu

View Profile , and No.3 seed Liudmila Samsonova

View Profile , who was forced to retire due to illness. Badosa's physical win over Raducanu in the quarterfinals earned her a spot in her first semifinal since 2023. She is now bidding to be the second wild card champion this season, following in Jelena Ostapenko

View Profile 's footsteps in Linz. 

To unwind Dolehide, who had notched her first Top 20 win of the year over Daria Kasatkina

View Profile in the second round, Badosa's serve proved pivotal. It was the shot that paid dividends against Raducanu 24 hours earlier, and once again, the Spaniard proved difficult to break. She won 89 percent of her first serves and over 50 percent of her second serves, saving all three break points she faced.

While Badosa battled through the hot conditions of the day, Bouzkova and Sabalenka locked horns through a rain-delayed evening. Bouzkova raced out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set before holding off a furious comeback bid from Sabalenka, who settled herself after a slow start.

Despite failing to steal the opening set, Sabalenka took her momentum into the second. After making 26 unforced errors in the first set, Sabalenka dialed back her power and hit just 12 in the second set. The top seed broke early in the third set to lead 2-1 before the forecast thunderstorm arrived.

After a three-and-a-half-hour rain delay, Sabalenka struggled to find the baseline consistency that put her in a winning position. Bouzkova broke immediately on the restart and earned the decisive break to lead 5-3. The Czech cooly closed out the win with a love hold.