2 days, 9 match points and no sleep later, Badosa into US Open second round
NEW YORK -- After a nearly 15-hour day at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Tuesday, Paula Badosa arrived at her hotel at midnight without a spot in the US Open second round.
She was close, though -- painfully close. Playing Daria Kasatkina on Court 17, the former World No. 2 led 6-1, 5-4, 40-all and let three match points slip away before the rain came, suspending play for the evening. I
Badosa couldn't sleep, replaying the match points over and over in her head, as well as the two points she would need to close it out.
She attempted to meditate and do some breathing exercises, but only fell asleep intermittently, struggling to quiet her brain and calm her nerves.
It was the first time she could ever recall that a match was suspended so close to the finish line.
"That's why I was super, super tense," Badosa told reporters on Wednesday afternoon. "We always say that tennis is mental, but this, I think, was another level of mental."
Her warm-up was subpar, she said, because she was tired and emotional, and she didn't want to do a full warm-up considering she didn't know how long she'd be on court. She didn't have an appetite, either, though she's trained her body to play on an empty stomach.
When the match resumed, Badosa won the opening point to earn a fourth match point. It appeared that it might be an exceptionally quick day's work for Badosa, but Kasatkina forced the issue. The Australian saved four more match points, and after six deuces Badosa finally clinched the victory with an ace on her ninth match point.
It was still a quick day of work, albeit a stressful one. Though as nervous as she said she was, the resilience in that lone game was elite.
Afterwards, she was understandably exhausted.
"I played the match 50 times already [in my head]," she said. "So I felt like I played a five-set match."
The win is a significant boost for Badosa, who had an extremely poor first half of the season, falling to No. 141 in the PIF WTA Rankings. That low point came after a stretch of seven losses in nine WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz matches, and the Spaniard knew that if she had any chance of getting a direct entry into the main draw of the US Open, she'd have to go on a tear and rattle off consecutive wins.
She did just that, winning five matches in six days to win the WTA 125 Nordea Open on clay in early June, and followed that up with four more wins at the WTA 250 UniCredit Open in Iasi.
Those nine wins pushed her back into the Top 100, securing her direct entrance in New York.
"I was feeling the pressure that I couldn't lose any of the matches, because I was pursuing getting in here," said Badosa, whose last match before the US Open was in July. "So I knew from the 10 matches I was gonna play, I had to win nine. So yeah, it was a challenge. I had all the pressure, but I think I handled it really well.
"I was happy with that, and I'm happy to be here, also today was another mental battle. But I think all this experience helped me when things don't go my way, or I cannot even control them."
Badosa, currently No. 87 in the world, planned to head directly to her hotel after the match and take it easy, with hopes of getting a nap in.
It will be the calm before the storm, as her next opponent is former champion and American hopeful Coco Gauff. The chance to play the No. 4 seed in Arthur Ashe Stadium is a golden opportunity, considering the position Badosa was in just a couple months ago.
It's quite an interesting matchup, as Badosa leads their head-to-head 5-3, including a three-set win in Berlin earlier this summer.
"I like to play against these players," she said. "I like to play in big stadiums. I enjoy it, and against Coco, we played many, many times. I think we know each other really well. We know how we're gonna play, and at the end, it's who plays the best that day.
"I played recently against her, but I have to say I played a very good match. Hopefully I can perform at that level, and let's see how it goes."
