Paula Badosa, the ‘Giant Killer’ enjoying a meteoric rise in 2021
Paula Badosa
Women’s tennis has often thrown up surprises in the past couple of years. The last decade was dominated by the 23-time Grandslam champion, Serena Williams for the major part. However, since the past couple of seasons, a trend of unpredictability has set on to the WTA tour.
Among the rising stars on the tennis circuit, Paula Badosa Gibert has surely been one of the standout performers of the tennis seasons. The Spaniard has broken into the top 30 rankings of the world, and is poised to climb higher up the rankings, come the end of 2021.
The 23-year-old youngster has stormed into the semifinals of Indian Wells Open 2021, and has beaten some exceptionally talented players on her way. Her victims include the likes of French Open 2021 champion, Barbora Krejcikova and three-time Grandslam champion, Angelique Kerber. Moreover, she also defeated the highly-rated American, Coco Gauff in the second round encounter.
A look at Paula Badosa’s giant killing spree
Paula Badosa can be rightly termed as the ‘giant killer’ given her success against higher ranked players in the past couple of months. For the matter of fact, five of her last nine wins have come against opponents ranked in the top 20.
At the Cincinnati Open 2021, she defeated the third seed and world number two, Aryna Sabalenka in the second round. She followed it up with another victory over Elena Rybakina in the third round, who is now ranked 16th in the WTA Rankings.
At Indian Wells Open, she has been in the form of her life, as she has defeated three top ranked players in straight sets in consecutive matches. She stormed past the third seed, Barbora Krejcikova in the third round, dropping just six games. The 21st seeded Spaniard made light work of Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals, setting up a semifinal date with Tunisian, Ons Jabeur.
The future looks bright for the Spanish youngster, who also claimed a title earlier this year on clay. Paula Badosa claimed the Serbian Open title earlier in May, and followed it up with a quarterfinal appearance at French Open 2021.
Nirmit Mehta
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