Billie Jean King Cup Finals 2024: Iga Swiatek defeats combative Paula Badosa and knocks Spain out in Malaga

The defeat of Sara Sorribes in the first game of the Spain vs Poland match of the Billie Jean King Cup 2024 forced Paula Badosa to work the miracle of beating Iga Swiatek to stay alive in the tournament. The qualification to the quarterfinals was at stake, and the Spaniard had to beat the world No. 2 player.

However, Badosa was able to overcome Swiatek. The Polish player dominated the Spaniard during the first set and a half, but despite the resilience of the New York-born player, the five-time champion ended up giving her country the pass to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1 result. Poland will now face the Czech Republic for a place in the semis.

Although he began holding his serve in the first games of the match, the feeling on the court was that as soon as Swiatek accelerated the pace Badosa was going to put the situation very uphill. And so it was. At 3-3, the Spaniard suffered the first break of the match.

After that, Swiatek confirmed the break to begin to caress the first set in her favor. She was not even going to give an opportunity to respond to Paula Badosa, who immediately after suffered a second break with which the Polish closed the set 3-6.

In the second set, Iga Swiatek started with the advantage of serving first. After taking her first game, the Polish player put things in her favor after breaking Badosa's serve and confirming the break to take a 0-3 lead.

However, Badosa had not said her last word. The Spaniard got a very important break to come back to life in the set, and cut it to 2-3. At this point, the match would enter a strange trend. Swiatek broke Badosa's serve again to take a 2-4 lead, but Badosa broke back to cut the deficit to 3-4.

Now, Paula Badosa managed to draw the score at 4-4, dreaming of a comeback. Although she had 2 break balls to continue to excite the public of Malaga, Swiatek saved both and put the 4-5 in their favor. The 5-5 came with a blank game of the Spanish, and thus reached the decisive part of the set.

After a hard-fought game between the two players, the world number 2 managed to pull it off. 5-6 and the ball in Badosa's court. The Spaniard, with a very solid performance in such an important game, sent the set to the tie-break.

Paula started better in the tiebreak, but Iga stepped up when she had to to take the lead. The 2021 Indian Wells champion was not going to give up so easily and continued to hold on like a limpet to the match, conceding a first set ball. And with a Malaga crowd behind her player, she got it with a 7-5 in the tie-break.

The third set started with difficulties for the servers. The first three games were solved with three breaks. This situation benefited Swiatek, who was the first to get her serve ahead to take a 3-1 lead. As if that wasn't enough, Badosa still couldn't take her serve and gave up another break.

At that moment, with 4-1 on the scoreboard, a medical incident with a spectator in the stands forced to stop the match while he was being attended. The half-hour stoppage did not seem to affect the world number 2 at all, who with a blank game was directly in disposition to take the match with Badosa's serve.

Despite missing three chances, Swiatek grabbed her opponent's neck and did not let go, making the final score 6-1. They will now face one of the bogeymen of the draw, Czech Republic, although they are missing their stars Karolina Muchova, Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Krejcikova.