"Emotionally she gets overwhelmed": Marion Bartoli points out key flaw in Paula Badosa's game after Navarro US Open collapse

Wednesday, 04 September 2024 at 16:03

Paula Badosa has been accused by former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli of being too 'emotionally overwhelmed' after being dumped out of the US Open 6-2, 7-5 by American ace Emma Navarro.

Badosa looked certain to go the distance after breezing into a 5-1 lead in the second set. But Navarro won 24 out of the last 28 points as when it came to the crunch, Badosa crumbled.

Navarro now faces Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open semi-finals. But Bartoli believes this is down to Badosa's shortcomings of letting her emotions get to her.

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“Badosa will learn from this. She obviously has never reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam, and I think it’s more emotional than tennis-wise because she has the tennis, the weapons, the fitness levels," she said to Sky Sports.

“She has the game but emotionally she gets overwhelmed. And she did today in a situation where she was in control.”

“She has to keep working on that because it takes a psychological jump to get over that barrier. She lost that second set purely on that. Navarro stayed steady but Badosa broke into pieces when she was in control.”

It was a sentiment that was shared by Navarro who saw the emotional flaws develop as she admitted she didn't look confident in her ability to close it out.

“Even though she was up 5-1, after that game, I felt like she wasn’t totally confident in her ability to close out that set.

“I felt like if I could push back a little bit and make her think a little bit on her service game, maybe I could sneak my way back in there. Sometimes you’re out in the court, and you can picture yourself playing a third set.

“When I was out there, I didn’t picture myself playing a third set. I felt I could come back and do it in two.”

US Open Tennis

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Emma Navarro's moment in the sun! ☀️ She comes from 5-1 down in the second set to defeat Badosa and reach her maiden Grand Slam semifinal!

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5:31 PM · Sep 3, 2024

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