After Tsitsipas and Badosa won the first match of the World Tennis League final, Paula Badosa paired up with best friend Aryna Sabalenka to lose a 5-2 lead against Sofia Kenin and Mirra Andreeva.
The Kites have been playing really good tennis for the entire week so them leading in the final shouldn't come as a huge surprise. We have three more matches to go so the lead is not yet safe because of the unique format.
Every game won counts as one point with the winning team being the one who has the most points after all 5 matches. A scoreline like 6-1 could change things dramatically and we've seen it a few times this week. It was a pretty exciting match overall as both teams had chances from the start.
The first four games of the match featured break points, with the 4th one also featuring a break. Badosa and Sabalenka went up 3-1 and held that lead for much of the set. They were up 5-2 at one point but the American-Russian combo wasn't going to give up.
They first saved two match points down 2-5 to make it 3-5 and then broke Sabalenka and Badosa in the very next game. They saved a match point in that one as well. The next game was much easier and the score was 5-5.
Then came the shock for Badosa and Sabalenka as they got broken to make it 6-5 for Kenin and Andreeva. What a crazy turnaround in a pretty short period of time. The Russian - American combo then held their serve to win the match 7-5 and it's a huge win.
They were down 2-5 having to save match points which is an incredible comeback. They basically saved the final because if they lost 2-6 the Kites would have had a 5 point lead with only 3 matches to go. This way, the Eagles actually lead by one.
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