Paula Badosa makes bizarre claims ahead of her debut in Stuttgart Open
Follow Us
Paula Badosa
World No. 3 Paula Badosa will finally make her main-draw debut at the Stuttgart Open having earlier played in the qualifiers in the 2018 edition but could not win her first qualifier match. As she returns to the event for the first time since then having become a better player since then couple of titles under her belt, the Spaniard talks about her plan going into the tournament.
Badosa was one of the few to skip the BJK Cup Qualifiers and she made her clay debut for the season at the 2022 Charleston Open where she lost in the quarter-finals to eventual champion Belinda Bencic. As she comes to Stuttgart as the second seed, Badosa talked about what changes she plans to make for the surface and for the claycourt specialist.
“Well, expectations are always high now at the level that I am but I want to be very focused on day by day, enjoying it. It’s going to be very tough. You all know that clay court is my favourite surface, but that also makes it tricky because maybe they think you are even more favourite and now they play better against you.
“In clay, I have to be honest, I just played one tournament and it surprised me because I saw everyone playing very, very fast. Maybe some years ago, it wasn’t like that. So I think tennis is changing. It’s always an evolution. And I think it’s changing because people are stronger, they’re moving better, and they’re hitting harder, even bigger and bigger. It’s getting very fast.
“So I’m adapting myself. I’m seeing the players that are adapting as well. They’re improving a lot on that. So I will have to improve on serving bigger, returning very fast as well and playing fast like them. That’s a tough question right now because I’m still discovering myself, so I don’t really know how I play [on clay]. I know I play good on the baseline, I have big strokes and I try to be aggressive,” said Badosa speaking with WTA Insider.
“I am a fighter, no matter what” Paula Badosa ready to give it all
While the Spaniard was quite critical of her game on the surface, she also pointed out that she is not the one to give up easily and fights to every single point and would rather go down fighting instead of not having tried at all.
“But at the same time, I’m trying to find this balance of good movement, defending well. I try to be solid and find that balance, to be solid but as well aggressive. Maybe sometimes I need to be a little bit more aggressive in the levels that I’m talking about because against players like Iga, Aryna, the top players, you need to have that aggressive mentality but at the same time solid.
“So I think I have to improve a little bit more in being a little bit more aggressive. The thing that I know 100 percent is that I’m a fighter. I try to fight every point, every match, no matter what,” concluded Badosa as she prepares for her first match of the tournament against Elena Rybakina in the second round as she had a bye in the first round.
Stay Updated!
Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)