KARLSRUHE, Germany – Paula Badosa overcame home favorite Laura Siegemund, 6-4, 6-1, at the Liqui Moly Open Karlsruhe on a bad day for the seeded players.
Of the four seeded women to feature on Thursday, only Alison Van Uytvanck, No.2 for the week, managed to progress.
Irina Begu had already retired when trailing Tereza Mrdeza, 6-3, 2-1, while Tamara Korpatsch had delighted the crowd by upsetting Stefanie Voegele, 6-3, 6-4 by the time the final two players of the day took the court.
Siegemund, a clay court specialist, could not stop the trend of upsets as she followed the No.6 and No.7 seed respectively out of the competition.
Coming into the match off the back of a convincing win over Lara Arruabarrena in the first round, the Spaniard was quickly out of the blocks against the WTA World No.80. Although she failed to convert either of two break points in the opening game, she made no such mistake when next presented an opportunity.
Indeed, she was the dominant player in what looked on paper to be a tight first set. Break opportunities were created in four of Siegemund’s five service games, while she only gave up one of her own.
If that single break was sufficient to take the opener, the second was rather more emphatic.
Badosa, who stands at WTA World No.101, immediately broke on two occasions as she strung together the first four games of the set. Siegemund hit back with a hold to love – the only comfortable game she would have in the match – but the momentum of the lower-ranked player was irresistible as she broke four a third time in the set to seal the match.
Badosa will next face Korpatsch, who took 96 minutes to see off Voegele, a player ranked just three spots ahead of her at WTA World No.112.
In the other quarterfinal of the lower half of the draw, Mrdeza will tackle Van Uytvanck, whose 6-2, 6-3 victory over Laura-Ioana Paar bucked Thursday’s trend of the favorites losing.
