Badosa survives against inspired American Liu in Charleston

Paula Badosa had to dig deep in order to overcome inspired American Claire Liu in Charleston winning 3-6 7-6(8) 6-1.

The Spaniard opted to play in Charleston after Miami and today was a very stressful match for her. She faced native player Clare Liu who was very inspired from the get-go and she gave the Spaniard all she could handle. The start of the match featured strong play by both. Both played well and neither had any issues winning games on serve.

At 4-3, Liu jumped out to a lead in the game and she converted the break point to take a 5-3 lead. She then closed it out with 6-3. Badosa did not serve well in the first set but she nearly overcame that faltering only towards the end. It was a disappointing result but she rallied in the 2nd set with an early 3-0 lead. She served much better in the 2nd set and attacked Liu on the 2nd serve with great success.

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She lost the lead not long after that but went ahead once more with a 5-3 lead. Serving for the set at 5-4 Badosa complicated things by losing her serve and giving her opponent a chance. It ended in a tiebreak with Badosa edging out her opponent 10-8. Liu kind of fell apart after that as Badosa took an early lead in the 3rd set and never looked back.

She finished off the job with 6-2 to move on in Charleston.