Badosa Loses In Her First Match In 185 Days But Shows Positive Signs
Paula Badosa lost to Bernarda Pera in her first match at the 2024 Adelaide International, but her fans should not be worried.
It's been 185 days since tennis fans got to see the former world no. 2 on the tennis court, as she was last forced to retire against Marta Kostyuk in her second-round match at Wimbledon in July 2023.
After a long recovery journey, the Spanish player finally declared herself injury-free ahead of the WTA 500 tournament in Adelaide and the draw was nice to her, as she faced an opponent, who lost three of her last four matches.
That meant that Badosa could be competitive, and she was, for a part of this first-round match against the world no. 69, Pera, who got into the draw as a lucky loser after losing her final qualifying match to Katerina Siniakova.
The first set of the match was great for Badosa. She faced three break points, but saved two of them, and on the other hand, she was able to use two of her break chances to jump into a one-break lead and win the opening set 6-3.
But from there, things went downhill for the Spanish player. She couldn't find the same efficiency on break points in the second set, while Pera broke her serve twice, and she forced the decider after winning the second set 6-2.
Badosa started the third set well, leading 3-1, and it seemed that she will be able to record her first win in over 6 months. But then, she lost five consecutive games as Pera turned the third set around to win the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and advance to the second round of the 2024 Adelaide International.
While Badosa will want to practice ahead of the season's first Grand Slam, which is set to start on January 14th, 2024, in the Melbourne Park, the American will prepare for her second-round match against the second-seeded Jessica Pegula.
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