Paula Badosa was just a few games away from winning her opening-round match at the 2024 Qatar Open against Ashlyn Krueger, but rain interfered.
The Spanish player has been up and down during this most recent comeback. She had some good showings, like the one in Melbourne, but also some bad ones, like the one in Hua Hin, where she was stopped by an injury.
It's just a lot of up-and-down play, which is kind of normal because she hasn't been playing for a long time. It takes time to build up a good rhythm, and wins like this one should help.
Krueger is an interesting young player who can certainly do some damage if given a chance. She gave Badosa some trouble by taking away one set, but ultimately, the Spaniard prevailed.
She could have done so the night before, but rain prevented the match from finishing when the Spanish player was leading 6-3, 4-6, 4-2, and 15-40, so they returned to the court on Monday to finish it off. There weren't any issues for Badosa, who calmly cruised to the finish line.
Overall, it was a tough match, lasting well over two hours. Badosa didn't serve all that well, which was unfortunate as much depended on her serve. The court helps those who serve well, so it was unfortunate that she couldn't exert too much pressure on it.
She did enough in the rallies, though she ran into some problems in the second set. Overall, though, Badosa made it a goal to attack the American's second serve and did so really well.
She won the vast majority of those points, which allowed her to win the match. Krueger couldn't do that to her second serve, which was the difference.
The final score was 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 for Badosa who moves to either face Liudmila Samsonova or Leylah Fernandez.
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