Paula Badosa, the 2021 Madrid Open semifinalist, and Simona Halep, the two-time champion, met in the second round of the WTA 1000 event in Madrid in 2022.
The Romanian is one of the best clay-court players on the WTA Tour. With a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, supporting her, Halep is showing her high level again at the 2022 Madrid Open.
In the first round of the tournament, the former world no. 1 played against Shuai Zhang, who she comfortably defeated and was satisfied with her performance after the match.
"I was thinking about stopping at one point. But now I'm starting to get it back, I have the fire back, and I love to be on court."
This time, she delivered a very dominant and fast victory against world number 2, Badosa, who was supported by the home crowd. In her second-round match against the Spaniard, she started with a quick break in the first game but then lost her one-break advantage in the fourth game and found herself 2-3 down.
However, from that moment, Halep was dominant on the court. She won almost all the remaining games in the match and marched towards a 6-3, 6-1 victory in slightly more than an hour.
The Romanian was also dominant in all of the statistics when she hit two aces and no double faults. Halep was successful after 84% of rallies after her first service and fought off six out of seven breakpoints that her opponent had.
On the other hand, Badosa didn't enjoy the best match in Madrid as she also requested a medical timeout at one point in the match. In the third round, Halep will take on the winner of the match between Coco Gauff and Yulia Putintseva, as she will definitely be a favorite if any of the mentioned players advance.
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