Paula Badosa, a Spanish tennis player, found a way to overcome the threat of young Danish tennis player Clara Tauson at the Qatar Open, Doha in the 2022 season.
The third seed needed just 69 minutes to beat 19-year-old Tauson 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the third round of the Qatar Open.
Their previous encounter took place almost 12 months ago in Lyon when the Dane entered the second WTA tournament match of his career and won the match in straight sets.
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At the time, neither player was in the top 70, but a year has passed and both players are ranked better than that. World number 33 Tauson has claimed victories over Anett Kontaveit and Belinda Bencic this season, while the Spaniard is number 4 in the world after winning titles in Belgrade and Indian Wells last season and in Sydney this season.
In this match, Paula Badosa impressed with his first serve. He shot nine aces and dropped just three points from his first serve.
In total, the 24-year-old tennis player produced 20 winners by making 17 unforced errors, while Tauson made 25 unforced errors by hitting 14 winners.
Waiting for Badosa in the third round of the Qatar Open was the 14th seed, Cori Gauff, who defeated the French tennis player, Caroline Garcia, 6-2, 7-6.
Like Badosa, second seed Barbora Krejcikova did not face much drama in her Qatar Open opener. She lost to Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the preliminary rounds of Dubai last week but this week she did not let the same happen after she thrashed Poland’s Magda Linette 6-1, 6-3 in 1 hour 11 minute.
Czech Krejcikova dropped just 12 points from her serve and saved both of the break points she faced, while Linette was blocked by 33 unforced errors that flowed off her racket and produced just eight winners.
For a place in the Qatar Open quarter-finals, Krejcikova will meet Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko who won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 over American Amanda Anisimova.
While Krejcikova’s compatriot and defending champion, Petra Kvitova has no luck. She was forced to withdraw after injuring her left wrist while trailing 7-5, 1-2 against 16th seed Elise Mertens.
Kvitova was leading 2-1 in the second set when she called a physiotherapist and opted to withdraw. Mertens will now face fourth seed Anett Kontaveit in the third round and he is leading their head to head 3-1.
