Aryna Sabalenka's meeting with Paula Badosa had a unique character due to the information that was circulated around the world on Tuesday morning. That's when it showed up News of the death of Konstantin KoltsovWho was recently linked to the Belarusian tennis player. On Wednesday night, the WTA ranked runner-up spoke for the first time after the incident. She said on her Instagram story that she was no longer in a relationship with the hockey player, but was deeply affected by the whole situation.
Despite this, she decided to play in the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami. It so happened that in her first match she had to compete with her closest friend on the courts – Paula Badosa. In the opening round, she defeated Spaniard Simona Halep, who was returning to the tour, after a three-set match. According to the schedule, the third-round qualification match between Sabalenka and Badosa is scheduled to take place on Thursday, but the Belarusian She asked the organizers to postpone the fight to Friday Due to the exceptional situation.
The tournament authorities agreed to this request and the match was added to the Friday match plan. Both tennis players were initially supposed to take the court at 16:00 Polish time but due to rain falling since the morning It happened six hours later. The players took to the field wearing black clothes. In addition, a hat can be seen on Arina's head, which has never been seen before during her meetings. Maybe she wanted to protect her face extra.
Luck smiled at Sabalenka in the seventh game. The tape helped the Belarusian woman
The beginning of the match was even. Sabalenka had the first opportunity to take the lead in the fifth game, but Badosa responded to the threat in a very good manner. But after two matches, the Spaniard was not so lucky. While she was steady, she made a small mistake, and after a moment After one of the moves of the Belarusian player, the ball passed over the bar Paula was no longer able to respond appropriately.
This breakthrough sealed the fate of the first batch. Sabalenka had some problems with her passing at times, however She was able to respond to them appropriately. The Belarusian player had chances to finish the set with a serve of Badossi, but the Spanish player then defended herself. Later, the WTA Rankings runner-up was able to use the fourth set ball, which was already on her own serve, and finished the match with a score of 6:4.
In the second set, the break in Sabalenka's favor actually happened in the third game. The Spaniard was in the lead for a long time, but the decisive actions went to the player ranked second in the WTA rankings. From then on, the Minsk-born tennis player dominated the match events. However, she never missed her pass Badosa got her chance in the eighth game.
In the end, Arina broke her friend again and finished the match with a score of 6:4, 6:3. The Belarusian's opponent in the third round will be Anhelina Kalinina. Match report Aryna Sabalenka – Paul Bados is available here.
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