Paula Badosa arrived at the
US Open 2024 playing almost better tennis than ever. She showed it in practically all the rounds until the quarterfinals but there she lost to an impressive Emma Navarro by 2-6 and 5-7. However, the Spaniard was proud of the road she has traveled and what she has achieved on this North American hard court tour. After the match, she spoke to the tournament microphones at the press conference afterwards.
"Well, I'm very disappointed with my level today. I think she played really good and she managed the situation really well, and I was a complete disaster," she said at the start of her post-match press conference.
"I never had the momentum in this match. I played four or five games okay. It was 5-1, but I never felt myself in the court. I didn't feel serving well, playing well from the baseline. That's my biggest strength.
"So I think today it surprised me because I was playing pretty good the other matches, I was feeling good. But when I walked into the court, I think I didn't match well the situation or the emotions. It was a bit hard to handle for me. I wanted to win so much that sometimes that doesn't help at all."
"This is the first time it happens to me in my career. I think losing a set from 5-1 up, I never did that before. So I think there is always a first time for something, so it had to come today unfortunately."
"I don't know. I still need to think what happened, because I had two service games there also. I started to miss. I lost, I don't know, 20 points almost in a row. It's very weird for me because I'm quite a consistent player, so I wasn't expecting that either. So I'm quite disappointed."
But ending the Grand Slam season in resurgent fashion and winning a title in Washington as well as reaching the semi-finals in Cincinnati and the Quarter-Finals in New York, it has been one to remember.
"Now I say it's a disaster, but when I started in Washington I would sign all the results, for sure. And coming from where I'm coming from, look, I have to be happy. I don't know. Maybe I'm 15 in the race, so I wasn't expecting that a few months ago. So on that, I'm really proud of myself.
"The thing that for me makes me the way I am today, it's a Slam and, you know, your dream is always to make last rounds in a Slam. Performing the way I performed today, I know that if it wasn't a slam I would perform well. So that's what's a little bit why I'm like this today, you know. Because I didn't know how to handle it the best way."
