Paula Badosa has reflected on her ‘insane improvement’ over the last few months as she lost in the Australian Open semi-finals.
After a good start to the match, Paula Badosa was ultimately outplayed by Aryna Sabalenka as the defending champion secured a 6-4 6-2 win to move into a third consecutive Australian Open final.
The Spaniard broke to start the match and secured a 2-0 lead but ultimately Sabalenka was too strong on the day and the world number one advanced to the final.
Speaking after the match Badosa admitted there wasn’t much she could do about the performance and spoke about what it was like to break early against the world number one, “Well, I don’t think I have much to say. Also, the level of Aryna today, she played like a No. 1. I couldn’t do much more today,” Badosa started her press conference by saying.
“I was playing good. I mean, the first set was really tight, a good level. Then in the second set she started to be very, very aggressive. Everything was working. Everything she was doing today, touching today, could become gold. I have nothing to say.
“I mean, of course credits to her, congratulations to her. She played the best match not even of the week. From the last months, for sure. If she plays like this, I mean, we can already give her the trophy.
“When you’re aggressive. When you go for the lines. When you change directions. When a ball is coming strong to you, but you’re able to change directions very easily. You’re fast. You’re serving well. You do everything well. That’s how a No. 1 plays. She did it today.”
Badosa has now played Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek in big matches and the Spaniard has compared what it’s like to play both players with Badosa suggesting that playing Swiatek is physically harder, “Similar, that you have to bring your best out of when you play against them all the time. They’re, like, bringing you to the limits. You have to maybe take more risks against them. That’s what I found when I played against both of them,” Badosa explained.
“But I think maybe the difference, what make them different, is that with Iga, when I played against her, I felt she destroyed me physically. She’s, like, so intense all the time, all the time very, very intense. It was like for me, of course, it’s a tennis match, but it was like a physical battle. I found, like, her legs are insane. She’s so fast.
“With Aryna, it’s more like winners everywhere. Sometimes you’re like, I don’t know, I’m just walking around the court because I feel like she’s playing a PlayStation. Today she was like that. So sometimes I’m like, What’s happening? I don’t have time even to think. It’s completely different games, but at the same time you just have to bring the best out of you if you want to win them.”
An interesting perspective from Badosa as she now leaves Melbourne having reached her first Australian Open semi-final.
It is a massive positive from Badosa, considering she almost quit the sport in April and the Spaniard described her progress over the last six months as an ‘insane improvement,’ “Yeah, no, it’s really, really positive. I mean, I wasn’t expecting maybe improving or going so fast,” Badosa stated.
“I didn’t check, but seeing the results of everyone, now I know I’m top 10, but I think the last months maybe it’s top 5 of the players that have win most matches. So for me that’s insane, and it’s an insane improvement, an insane improvement mentally, of believing, of coming back from that.
“I mean, I was once top 10, but doing it two times I think not a lot of people are capable of that. I’m really proud of myself because it’s not easy when you’re 100 in the world and you have to face these kind of players, but in the first round. Coming back from that, I’m really, really proud of the journey.”
Badosa will move up three places in the rankings to nine in the world when they get released on Monday.