Hurting, but happy, Badosa said adios to the Mutua Madrid Open today after falling to world number 9 Maria Sakkari. It was a painful defeat but the Spaniard\u2019s improvement in recent weeks remains clear.<\/p>\n
One step at a time, Badosa is returning to her best and shortly after today\u2019s defeat she spoke about how positive the tournament has been for her: \u201cI\u2019m feeling good as I leave here, I\u2019m in the middle of a process, I\u2019ve been on the clay swing for a month and I\u2019ve been feeling better, enjoying myself on court and being able to do that again is very valuable for me\u201d. After her clash with Gauff, another top 10 player crossed swords with the Spaniard, but getting past the Greek proved a step too far: \u201cShe was very solid, she served very well, I was hesitant on a couple of service games and I didn\u2019t have my best stuff, so it was that, together with the fact that she played at a very high level\u201d.<\/p>\n
Getting more tennis under her belt will now be vital for Paula\u2019s progress, as she acknowledged: \u201cI\u2019m leaving here having played some good matches, a hard-fought one in the first round, maybe not playing quite as well, but it\u2019s always good to get through them, particularly on the mental side. A good match against Coco, I also had Stuttgart, where I had some good matches. Obviously, I\u2019m frustrated about today\u2019s game, but I can\u2019t go back, all I can do is look forward to Rome and Paris\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard also spoke about how she was feeling good coming into Madrid, but a tournament with these characteristics requires a high level and focus. She has now picked up valuable minutes on court and that is very significant to the current world number 42: \u201cI\u2019m playing matches, which is what I need and at the start of the year I didn\u2019t play that much and that\u2019s important to me, I\u2019d say I passed the exam of this tournament and can take some positive things away from it. Also, as I\u2019ve been saying every day, I\u2019m very excited and motivated\u201d.<\/p>\n
Paula knows very well that this defeat does nothing to tarnish the mental progress she has made in recent months, which has helped the ex-world number two recover the grit and determination that she became known for: \u201cOn a mental level I\u2019m doing well, competing again during the match, fighting. I have promised myself that, even if I\u2019m not feeling good, I have to stay in the match and fight to the last point…\u201d. She also has her mind set on her final goal; \u201cthe long-term objective is obviously to get back to where I was, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll be in two months, six, or a year, but I still have to rediscover a lot of things\u201d. If one thing is for sure, though, Paula will soon be back in Madrid with a smile on her face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hurting, but happy, Badosa said adios to the Mutua Madrid Open today after falling to world number 9 Maria Sakkari. It was a painful defeat but the Spaniard\u2019s improvement in recent weeks remains clear. One step at a time, Badosa is returning to her best and shortly after today\u2019s defeat she spoke about how positive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":84699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,843],"tags":[835,831,873],"class_list":["post-85714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-mutua-en","category-noticias-tenis-femenino-en","tag-2023-es-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-en-2","tag-paula-badosa-en-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85715,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85714\/revisions\/85715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}