The Spanish Paula Badosa shone again in the second round of the Australian Open by easily beating the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 and 6-3 after one hour and twelve minutes. For her part, the 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva defeated Jabeur (6-0 and 6-2) in just 52 minutes. In this way, she becomes the youngest tennis player in history to achieve a rosco against a top 10 in a Grand Slam tournament.
Badosa will return to the third round, after two years, and will compete in the next round against the American Amanda Anisimova after she beat the Argentine Nadia Podoroska by a firm 6-2 and 6-3 this Wednesday.
The Catalan repeated victory on court 6 and once again perfectly concealed that she was out of the circuit practically all of last season due to a serious back injury and finished the duel with 83% of points with first serves and without conceding any game to the take out.
The Girona native expressed her concerns in the last press conference because the recovery on competition days is longer than usual, as a result of the long period of inactivity, but her excellent footwork and intensity once again amazed the Australian public.
Her 31 winning shots and only 13 unforced errors give clues that the Spanish born in New York did not waste time during the preseason because, as she revealed at a press conference, she wants to return to the most privileged part of the WTA list .
She never faced her next rival, the American Anisimova, who beat the Russian seed Liudmila Samsonova (13) 6-3 and 6-4 in the first round, and in the second round the only Argentine hope Podoroska.
If she beats the American, Badosa could meet in a hypothetical fourth round with one of her best friends on the circuit and current champion, the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
The 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva became the youngest tennis player in history to achieve a rosco against a top 10, beating the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (6) 6-0 and 6-2 in 52 minutes. On the previous day, she also broke records by becoming the youngest tennis player to overcome the first round of the big four since the American Coco Gauff achieved it.
Jabeur, who reached the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park in 2020, suffered with his serve after accumulating a timid 49% of first play and paid for his excessive unforced errors (24), which contrasted with his rival's 10.
The Russian confirmed the omen that the world of tennis glimpsed with her dazzling rise in 2023, which went in a matter of weeks from playing ITF tournaments to achieving a round of 16 in Madrid and Wimbledon, and a third round at Roland Garros.
