Paula Badosa continues resurgence at Rome Open, takes down rising American Emma Navarro

After beating Mirra Andreeva in the first round of the Rome Masters 2024 by 6-2, 6-3, Paula Badosa continues with her good performance on Italian clay. The Spaniard has now disposed of a great player like top-seeded Emma Navarro by 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 after losing eight of the first nine games of the match.

The first set was a real ordeal for the Spaniard. She gave up the first service game and everything went uphill from then on. Her only chances to regain a break came at 1-4 down, but Emma Navarro saved them and broke Badosa's serve for the third time to take the set 6-1.

The second set got off to a very similar start. Navarro was 2-0 up after winning again the first service game of the former world number 2. But Badosa was to wake up. When she looked most desperate, she got her first break in favor to go 1-2 and won as many as four consecutive games to go 4-2 up.

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From there, both struggled to hold their service games but managed to do so. Emma Navarro even saved two set points to force Badosa to serve to take the set. Which she did with a clear hold from Badosa who managed to win by 6-4 finally. The third set was something similar to what Emma Navarro did to her in the first. She managed to break the American's serve twice and closed with her own to put the 6-2 on the final scoreboard.

In the third round she will face Diana Shnaider, another young Russian, 20, who is performing at an outstanding level so far in the tournament with wins over Greet Minnen 6-2, 6-3 and her compatriot Liudmila Samsonova, world number 17, 6-1, 6-3. After what has been a pretty shocking 12 months since her injury sustained at the 2023 Rome Open, it is starting to look up for Badosa.

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