A newcomer, a newcomer to the elite, Jessica Bouzas (Vilagarcía de Arousa, Pontevedra; 21 years old), debuted this Wednesday in her first match in the WTA 1000 category with a victory in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open against the former world number two Paula Badosa (2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 2h 7m). The Catalan, who fractured her fourth lumbar vertebra almost a year ago at the Foro Italico in Rome, suffers from a chronic back injury that has put her sporting career at a crossroads. Her rival came to the clash from the previous phase – she beat the American Sachia Vickery on Tuesday by 7-6 (5) and 6-2 – and after breaking into the top-100 (it’s the 93rd) last week. Until now she had won matches in the WTA 125 category (the equivalent of the challenger on the men’s circuit), but against Badosa, lack of rhythm and confidence (15 matches this year – 9 losses and 6 wins – and in 101st place in the ranking), Bouzas has taken a step forward in her career: solid from the baseline, with a brave forehand and a good two-handed backhand, she has frustrated the Catalan to access the second step of a WTA 1000 for the first time, where She will face off this Thursday with the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, world number 10 and Roland Garros champion in 2017.
At the Manolo Santana stadium, the center court, Bouzas started the match in a fantastic way: break and serve, without showing cracks in his game in his debut at the top. 2-0 up in an instant. Badosa—who played with a bandage on his left leg after suffering a small break in Stuttgart—reacted with some of his best tennis, raising the bar with his crosscourt shots and serving him out to take the first set in six straight games. But the Galician, with a lot of rhythm and quick legs, believed it: she raised her game in the second and third sets and created a sea of doubts for the Catalan. “In the second set, with the help of my team, I had that confidence in myself,” she confirmed in the post-match press conference.
The Galician’s security was what Badosa lacked, as she got caught with unforced errors. The Catalan, at times crestfallen as she could not find her tennis, conceded the second set with a double break Of diference. In the third, after having recovered from a break and going 4-3 down with a serve to equalize, he became cloudy again and gave up the game. Bouzas won the match with his blank serve, with a backhand winner down the line after which he dropped the racket on the clay, clenched his fists and raised his arms slightly.
Bouzas has been training and living in Madrid for years, and has acknowledged that the Mutua is her favorite tournament: “It has been my dream since I was little to be able to do well here, and also at the Manolo Santana. “It’s a dream come true.” The Galician has raised her performance this season. On March 31 she achieved her first WTA 125 by winning in Antalya (Turkey), a few weeks later she got into the top 100 in the world and today she won her first match at the Madrid Open. “I focus on going step by step. I believe I can be here. I trust more in myself, in playing my tennis, because I have done a great job with my team. It is what is giving me results, and it is a bit the key,” she noted.
The next station she has is a Grand Slam champion, Ostapenko, a 26-year-old cannon who in 2018 also reached the semifinals of Wimbledon. “Here in Spain there is a lot of love for tennis. The next (round) I don’t play against a Spanish player, so if we are supporting, great,” the Galician asked the Mutua crowd. With her victory against the tennis player from Begur (Girona), Bouzas will improve her ranking: she will go from 93rd place to 87th. She will be the third Spanish in the classification, only behind Sara Sorribes (55) and Cristina Bucsa (75). Badosa (26 years old) will fall 20 places, from 101 to 121.
Paula Badosa: “Every week there is disappointment, today because of the level of tennis”
Today’s defeat for Begur in Madrid, where last year she reached the quarterfinals and in 2021 her career took off by reaching the semifinals after suffering from depression and anxiety problems, is a blow. “I’m disappointed. I come from what I come from, but I expected more. I can’t ask for much either,” she said at a press conference. “Every week there is disappointment, today because of the level of tennis,” she added.
Badosa has told these days about the situation he has been living with for almost a year. Following the chronic back injury he suffered in Rome in 2023, doctors told him in March that it would be difficult for him to continue his professional career. The Catalan – last year she was only able to play 27 games – has endured these months with many difficulties. “I have gone to train many days and I have lasted ten, twenty or thirty minutes, and mentally they are very hard blows,” he acknowledged yesterday, when he also explained that it is impossible for him not to feel pain, although at least the cortisone injections that he undergoes has subdued they have helped her. “Today my tennis level affected me. Physically, it is what it is, but my level of tennis has been very low,” Badosa acknowledged. “I don’t like to see how I am. I have always had very high expectations, I have lived what it is like to be at the top and now it is very difficult to see myself at the bottom. I’m having a hard time getting up. The level of tennis is there, but I have to recover quite emotionally.”
Munar, Sorribes and Bucsa advance, but Landaluce falls
In the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open, in addition to Jessica Bouzas, Jaume Munar, Sara Sorribes and Cristina Bucsa won this Wednesday. Munar has defeated the Portuguese Nuno Borges in two sets (7-5, 6-4, 1h 58m), Sorribes has defeated the American Bernarda Pera also in two sets (7-5,6-2, 1h 55m) and Bucsa has beat the British Harriet Dart (6-4, 6-4, 1h 43m). On the other hand, the young Martín Landaluce – he turned 18 last January – has fallen against the German Daniel Altmaier (6-1, 7-5, 1h 35m), world number 61. It was Landaluce’s second match in the tournament after also playing in the first round last year, in which he lost to Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Rafa Nadal will make his debut on Thursday, who will face the American Darwin Blanch (number 1028 in the world) no earlier than 5:00 p.m., and Roberto Bautista, who defeated Albert Ramos in the qualifier on Tuesday and will face the Colombian Galán Daniel Elahi . Sorribes will also play again against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina (18th in the ranking WTA) at 11:00 and Bouzas against Ostapenko no earlier than 12:30.
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