"I like to play early": Paula Badosa expresses opinion about scheduling after recent comments from Pam Shriver

Spain’s Paula Badosa has expressed her feelings about the recent comments made by former doubles world number one Pam Shriver about the scheduling in the Australian Open. The 62-year-old recently commented that women’s matches were intentionally scheduled during the daytime in the ongoing first Grand Slam of the year to prioritise men’s tennis.

Spain’s Badosa has been recently quoted in a report in which she expressed her feelings about that particular comment from one of the greatest doubles players in the history of tennis. Badosa was of the opinion that matches are played at all time,s and her personal preference is to play early matches because finishing late makes it difficult for some players to go to sleep.

“We had everyday women’s matches, late also,” said Badosa. “I was one of them. Particularly, talking personally about me, I like to play early, I am an early morning person. It’s great because you can finish earlier, you have a good sleep. Sometimes when you play late it’s tough to go to sleep, it’s tough to rest. So for me personally it was good and I think tomorrow we are having late night matches. So, I don’t know the reason of today but for me it was great.”

Badosa defeated Olga Danilovic in the fourth round in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 7-6 to book her place in the quarterfinal of the mega-event. She will now face reigning world number three America’s Coco Gauff, who cemented her spot in the last eight after beating Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in the round of 16 with a score of 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. It will be the seventh meeting between the two players in professional tennis. In the previous six meetings, both players emerged victorious on three occasions each. Their most recent meeting was in the semifinal of the China Open in 2024, where Gauff came out on top with a score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.