"Serve was key" says Badosa on win after Fernandez

Defending champion Paula Badosa booked her return to the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday night after defeating No.18 Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round.

The 24-year-old Spaniard improved her undefeated record at Indian Wells to 9-0 and will face Veronika Kudermetova for a spot in her second semifinal of the season. The last player to win nine consecutive matches at Indian Wells was Naomi Osaka, who did so from 2018 to 2019.

Speaking after the match, Badosa recalled meeting Fernandez in 2020 in Auckland where the older Spaniard edge out her opponent:

"What most impact me in that moment is next day after she lost against me, the next day 7 a.m. she was practicing. I was like, Wow. Very, very intense player. Very hard worker. I thought she's going to be a very, very good player. As you can see, she's already top 20 at 19 years old. That's amazing."

On the match itself, she said:

"I knew that [being aggressive and serving well would] be the key. I knew she was going to make me move and not make me hit, like stop, because I was going to be aggressive and not letting her be moving me a lot. The key was a little bit the serve and to push her when she was serving. In the important moments, in the key moments, I served well and went for it very good."