Women’s Australian Open – semi-final –
Aryna Sabalenka nails that last dry blow and sees a greater challenge for Saturday: since local Evone Goolagong achieved it between 1974 and 1976, no tennis player has managed to chain three titles at the Australian Open. It will be against Iga Swiatek or Madison Keys, to be decided. And on the other side, Paula Badosa accepts and regrets, who does not find comfort in the grip of the finalist on the Internet, but who, probably, when she looks into perspective and removes the bad taste of the episode, as the days go by, she will savor really what was achieved in Melbourne. An invitation to continue. Overcoming yourself, which is no small thing. The Spaniard has found the limit in her first semifinals in a major, when she came across the fiery tennis of the two-time champion, incontestable, simply thunderous: 6-4 and 6-2, in 1h 26m. However, the southern route describes a sum and continues in the right direction.
The friendship between the two surrounds the preamble of the fight, but at the moment of truth, during that endless walk to the court in which the games begin to be won or lost, not a single exchange of glances. This is the elite, this is Australia, this is a semi-final. And the mind, that universe full of traps and tricks, decides as much or more than the racket. Tennis and psychology, two planets necessarily aligned. They both know each other more than well and there is no twist in the script, nothing strange, both face to face: an absolute approach and a cerebral replica. Head, head and more head, his coach asks Badosa, who enters on the right foot and tempered, doing exactly what the manual says. Balls and more balls inside, in the center; pace but not too much, so that it is her friend – sorry, Sabalenka – who feels that there is reinforced concrete in front of her and is tempted to hit the jar quickly.
Everything is going well, if not phenomenal, but duels with Sabalenka are usually like a dizzying ride on the Dragon Khan, pure adrenaline, and when suddenly you are here, when you blink you are already there, upside down. If the Belarusian finds the point, she is unstoppable. So what has started so well, break up and two options to open further, quickly leads to the opposite because the number adjusts the sight and its whiplashes have begun to sting and do damage, to find the desired destination. Zasca! Zasca! Zasca! The electrical storm is a spectacle, hell for those who suffer from it. It is an arsenal without equal. Even so, the Spanish woman maintains the type and color, aware that the slightest blurring would mean an immediate leap into the void. Breathe Badosa: calm down, Paula, calm down. Yes, this is a punishment, but competing with Aryna is like this: entry to the jungle no matter what.
With her there is no escape, you just have to go straight ahead and try to make her lose her step. Let’s see if it falters or becomes cloudy at any moment. And that’s where the Catalan is, it doesn’t matter that that possible 3-0 has turned into a series of four drawn games, suddenly 2-4. To continue, there is no other option. Row and row, stroke by stroke, waiting for the moment to come. It’s still cold, immersed in flour, without losing focus. But the door doesn’t open even with shots. The one from Minsk charges and charges, and based on accelerating and that endless number of intentional attacks, she closes the first set with 14 winning shots and without offering any other option than the mirage of the start. Violent goldsmithing. By then it has already gotten dark in Melbourne, autumn this Thursday, and the retractable cover of the plant has been closed because the clouds that had been warning since the morning are already dripping. Difficult, very difficult, but you have to believe it, Paula.
The problem is that a skid occurs. The Spanish woman falls into a lateral movement and immediately shows her thumb, everything oklet’s continue; They don’t want to, but they inevitably smile at each other. And when he gets up, here is the slip, Badosa gives up the service from the start and the ramp of the second set tilts extremely. The entire Himalayas ahead. Against this Sabalenka, or the most unpleasant of scenarios. The number one (26 years old) presses like an anaconda and accompanies every blow she throws with those ragged screams that express the will to break the ball, to continue up there at the top, dominating even more if possible. One hook after another, very powerful rights and backhands. Ode to demolition. The download is brutal. To do? Continue, continue or continue, because the other option would be to give up, and it will be no. But there is no one to stop the tigress.
At this point and under that overwhelming dynamic, there really isn’t much worth of tactics. Patience, repel and if the story doesn’t change much, suffer. So raw. That’s why Sabalenka is up there. The downpour continues and there is no choice but resignation. There is no reproach for Badosa, except for that opportunity at the beginning that perhaps would have led to a different course, who knows. However, those two options have flown and from there the locomotive has been activated, an unstoppable machine that evolves day after day and matures into an important spectrum. Third consecutive final for her in Australia, 20 successive victories. The Spanish woman is on the right path and says she wants to rub shoulders with the strongest, and she now knows exactly where the bar is: very high. Sabalenka and Swiatek, big words. Them and the others.
And Badosa will continue trying there, that’s for sure.
