Paula Badosa usually performs well on United States hard courts and Tuesday night she was true to form.
The 26-year-old wild card from Spain took a 6-1, 7-6 (6) match from Sofia Kenin at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. She’ll play No.3 seed Liudmila Samsonova in a Round of 16 match on Thursday.
“I brought a good level,” Badosa said before the tournament began. “So I think that gave me a lot of confidence, especially now for the hard court season. This is a swing I always like. I’m looking forward to it.”
Washington D.C. 2024: Scores | Draws | Order of Play
In her first appearance at the Fitzgerald Tennis Center, Badosa won 30 of her 36 first-serve points (83 percent), while Kenin was hurt by six double faults.
“Feeling really well, physically,” Badosa said afterward. “I had a few weeks to train very hard. Hard courts, I like it. These conditions are not easy. I got used to it pretty well today, I served pretty well."
Both of these players have experienced the giddy heights of success on the Hologic WTA Tour -- and also know what it’s like to fall off that pedestal and scratch and grind to try and return to that level.
Like Sloane Stephens and Amanda Anisimova, who met in a first-round match on Monday, Badosa and Kenin came to the nation’s capital looking to open a new chapter.
A little over two years ago, on the strength of a semifinal berth at Indian Wells and the quarterfinals in Miami, Badosa rose to a career-high No.2 ranking. A broken back -- a stress fracture, specifically -- however, cost her the last six months of 2023.
After a tough start, she found her rhythm on European clay, reaching the Round of 16 in Rome and third round at Roland Garros. She also entered this match with 13 defeats -- but had amassed 11 more wins.
For Badosa, choosing Washington, D.C. over the Olympics was a pragmatic decision for two reasons. Recovering from a back injury, she was leery of going from clay to grass, back to clay and then transition to hard courts in a short period of time.
“I’m not going to change surface that quickly, like from grass to clay, then next Toronto hard court,” Badosa told reporters. “For my back was not the best. I have to prioritize my health.”
The other factor was her protected ranking. Should she use it for the Olympics or the US Open?
“I had to choose in that moment,” she added. “Of course, it’s a shame I cannot play Olympics. The conditions are what it was.”
Oddly enough, these two had never played. That created a challenge for both.
“At the beginning, I don’t really know what to expect,” Badosa said. “That always happens when you face a player for the first time. But she’s a good player. It's going to be a tough match."
Badosa couldn’t have expected four drop shots and back-to-back double faults to end Kenin’s first service game -- but that’s just what happened. Twelve minutes in, Badosa was up 3-0. With a forehand cross-court winner into the open court, Badosa finished off the first set with a flourish -- in an even 30 minutes.
Kenin was a different player early in the second set; after failing to collect even a single break point against Badosa’s serve in the first set, she broke her twice in three tries. Kenin was serving for the set at 5-3 when Badosa cashed her fourth break-point opportunity when Kenin double faulted.
Badosa saved two set points and eventually forced the tiebreaker, twice serving back-to-back aces in her last two service games. Badosa was up 5-2, but Kenin leveled it a 5-all on a backhand error. She saved a match point but Badosa’s last serve led to a forehand return in the net.
The most difficult part of her comeback, Badosa said, was regaining her confidence.
“The thing that I was most surprised of myself that I didn’t expect: with an injury, you lose confidence," she said. "I thought, `Look, I left the tour, I come back, everything will be okay.’ When you feel that your body’s not responding the way it was when you left, you’re not that fast, your eyes don’t read the game that fast, and you see the top players that have played for the year and you didn’t, sometimes you’re a little bit more lost.
“I didn’t expect that because normally when you lose confidence it's when you lose matches, not without playing. I felt in that moment my confidence went down. So it was tough for me to build that again. Also my physical wasn’t the same. I was nine months on a couch, then I had to play high-level tennis. It took me some time to adapt to that rhythm and that competition level.”
Now, it appears, she’s getting back to that level.
“Look, the back is going to be the same,” Badosa said, “but I changed my mindset on that. To speak a little bit more positive I want to be more positive and I think it’s working pretty well since. I’m happy with it."
