Badosa falls at the gates of the Beijing final

The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa has been on the verge of the final of the Beijing tournament, in the WTA 1,000 category and played on hard courts, after losing in the semifinals to the American Coco Gauff (4-6, 6-4, 6 -2), against which he wasted a juicy advantage in the second round.

The Catalan, who was looking for her second final of the season, dominated the match 6-4 and 4-2, but six consecutive games won by the North American showed her moment of disconnection and completely turned it around.

Badosa showed his confidence in a first set of long exchanges and in which he managed to break his rival’s serve in the fifth game. Gauff hit back with a break in an endless eighth game, but the world number 19 left no room for doubt and responded with a counterbreak that won her the set.

With a break she opened the second round, in which the American survived five break opportunities from the Spaniard, who was still on her line. However, he let Gauff escape and she took out her claws to sign a vital break in the eighth game and make it six games won in a row.

The North American equalized the contest and opened a gap in the second (2-0), although Badosa stopped the bleeding with another break. But Gauff had already made the move, and two new breaks allowed him to close the duel in his favor after two hours and 20 minutes of play.

Now, Gauff will look for her second WTA 1,000 category trophy and the fifth in total against the winner of the other semifinal duel, which will be played by the Chinese Qinwen Zheng and the Czech Karolina Muchova, a US Open semifinalist.