Tennis
Badosa reaches first Grand Slam semi-final─── MORGAN PIEK 09:58 Tue, 21 Jan 2025
The American-born Spanish player, Paula Badosa, has reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.
This morning, the 27-year-old Badosa booked her spot in the semi-finals of the Australian Open women’s singles with a straight-sets victory against Coco Gauff of the USA.
The 11th-seeded Badosa claimed a 7-5, 6-4 victory against the third-seeded Gauff. She will face the winner of Tuesday’s second quarter-final, when the world number one and defending champion, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, takes on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova from Russia.
Following her victory against the former US Open champion, Badosa said that considering she had contemplated retiring, reaching her first Grand Slam semi-final is special.
“I’m really happy to be in the semi-finals for the first time,” said Badosa.
“The last Slam was very tough for me, losing in the quarter-finals, but I think I learned from that. Finally, today, I think I played a great match against Coco.
Aryna Sabalenka. Photo: X
“There was a point last year when I was pretty close to retiring because I wasn’t seeing myself at the level I wanted to be at. My body wasn’t responding well, and I couldn’t find solutions. But I wanted to give it one last try, one last chance to finish the year and see how it would go.
“Well, here I am, so I’m really proud of what we’ve gone through as a team, especially how I fought through everything, particularly mentally.”
On Wednesday, the former world number one, Iga Swiatek of Poland, will face America’s Emma Navarro in the quarter-finals, while Madison Keys of the USA will be up against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
Alexander Zverev. Photo: X
Meanwhile, the former Olympic champion, Alexander Zverev, became the first player in the men’s singles to reach the semi-finals. He had to fight hard for a 7-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-1 win against Tommy Paul of the USA to reach the semi-finals for the third time.
He will face the winner of Tuesday’s second men’s quarter-final between the ten-time champion, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, and the reigning Wimbledon champion, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. This match is expected to get underway at 11:10.