At this point in a Grand Slam, mid-range area, the tremors come.
The favourites, the hypothetical strongest, put their nerves to the test: the rivals go up in their beards, those who are looking for their Warholian fifteen minutes of glory. The great candidates speculate, manage their efforts, perhaps wary of more complex future commitments.
All of that is dangerous.
Paula Badosa (24) is already a favorite wherever she goes.
Last year, Badosa prevailed in Indian Wells and earlier this year he rose to second place in the WTA. She has regressed a hair in these weeks of clay, but she is still a heavyweight on the circuit. At Roland Garros she appeared as the fourth favorite.
Kaja Juvan (21) is supposed to play in another league. She is the 68th in the world, she has no known feats, she just reached the final in Strasbourg a few days ago, she has never won a WTA tournament and she has not gone very far in a Grand Slam either.
But now, in Paris, he looks at his Warholian moment. And he senses a crack to sneak through: when he is serving to close the first set, 5-2 up and with two breaks to spare, Paula Badosa has lowered her guard.
Badosa loses confidence in serving, no longer taking all the long rallies and frequently making mistakes when volleying, and Juvan gets playful. The Slovenian starts hitting right and left when she feels like it, releasing painful left shots. Badosa fails to run forward and when she does he arrives late and in a bad way.
Suddenly everything is equal.
Juvan stabilizes the score at 5-5, although Badosa reacts in the last stretch of the set and wins it (7-5).
Ready, any analyst would say: Badosa has put the game on track and is going to advance without problems.
Error.
The party has become rarefied and Juvan takes flight. He now reads all of Badosa's movements, who begins to lose his nerve and also his consistency. He fails more than necessary, gives life to the Slovenian, who continues with the drops and sends balloons to slow down the exchanges and scores the second set to the astonishment of the congregation and Badosa's despair (3-6).
Now, at the beginning of the third set, the Spanish makes absurd mistakes.
He does not make the right decision, he enters a tunnel, his deep blows no longer hurt the Slovenian, happy in her Warholian moment.
-What am I doing? -curses himself after his umpteenth network failure.
It may seem like a lie but in his desperation, Badosa finds himself. He settles down, tunes up, and strings together five straight games as Juvan trails off, aware that he's hit the ceiling.
Badosa finally commands, stops rushing into exchanges, has decompressed and finally takes over the game.
As she leaves the stage, Juvan leaves in tears, overcome with emotion.
It has had its moment, will it have more?
Veronika Kudermetova now awaits Badosa, who is already in the third round.
