Paula Badosa beat Victoria Azarenka in a marathon final to win the biggest title of her career to date at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells.
The Spaniard fought for more than 3 hours to win in three sets over Azarenka who has won the BNP Paribas Open twice. Throughout the turbulent final he had to battle hard against the Belarusian, including securing ten of the 17 break points he faced and winning 52 percent of his serve points. He closed the game by winning five of the nine points in the tie-break of the decider.
The 23-year-old is now the first Spanish woman in history to win the BNP Paribas Open title and the second Spanish woman to reach the final of the tournament after Conchita Martinez. In addition, her journey to winning the title was quite impressive after she defeated four top 20 players, namely Azarenka, Cori Gauff, Barbora Krejcikova, Angelique Kerber and Ons Jabeur.
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“The first thing I learned this week is that nothing is impossible. If you fight, if you train, after all the seasons you’ve been through, you can achieve anything.
“Sometimes you go through tough moments. In my case, I’ve been through that tough moment. I never stop dreaming. That’s what kept me training hard and confident until the very last moment.”
The 23-year-old was expected to become a tennis star at such a young age after she won the French Open junior title in 2015. However, these expectations weighed too much on her so taking part in the WTA tournament was an extraordinary challenge for her. It wasn’t until four seasons after winning the junior Grand Slam title that he broke into the top 100. Since then, he has started to improve in WTA tournaments.
He may not be the first or last young player to be showered with high expectations from such a young age. Asked for advice to young players in a similar situation, he stressed the importance of a support team.
“People think that when you are a good junior, next season you have to be in the top 20 or in the top 10. You get a lot of expectations. People are really looking forward to you, putting a lot of pressure on you,” continued Paula Badosa.
“I think the key is to have a good support team, train day in day out, don’t hear a lot of unimportant things and keep things simple. Sometimes, we make things complicated.”
Now with the BNP Paribas Open title, he has a serious goal of qualifying for the WTA Finals, Guadalajara which will feature eight of the best players in a season. He is currently in eighth position in the WTA Finals standings.
“I didn’t even think about that earlier in the week at Indian Wells,” admits Badosa of the season-ending tournament, the WTA Finals.
“I think I started thinking about it maybe when I got to the quarter-finals and I didn’t want to see it, but I started to think about it. In the beginning, it was impossible for me to think about it. When I saw the draw, it was really a tough draw. It’s hard for me to think that I can win this tournament.”
The title at Indian Wells is Badosa’s second career title to date after the Serbia Open in May. With this historic victory, he will be ranked 13th in the world.
