The risky path, the best path for Paula Badosa

One of the keys (if not the most important) to Paula Badosa’s progress, which is now gaining prominence in New York, has a name and surname: Pol Toledo Bagué, her coach. “I give him all the importance,” the tennis player answers to this newspaper, “because in the end he was with me 24-7.” [horas-días]is the one who has seen me cry, the one who has seen me suffer, the one who has seen me not believe in myself, the one who has seen me with doubts, the one who has seen me not want to continue playing this sport…”, continues the Catalan, who meets today (18.00, Movistar+) with the American Emma Navarro (23 years old and 12th in the world) in search of a place in the semi-finals in New York, terrain that a Spanish player has not ventured into since Conchita Martínez did so in the 1996 edition.

Badosa has a juicy opportunity ahead of her, born from the coach’s discourse and approach. Toledo, 28 years old and also from Girona, like her, frequented the ITF tournaments and challengers —those that precede the jump to the elite— until two years ago he decided to close his stage as a professional and try the technical side, after having reached position 372 of the ranking. They started working together in April last year and the starting point was conviction. Belief, on and off the court. Faith to start the climb and risk when attacking the ball. Instead of waiting or temporizing, always try to take the initiative in exchanges and determination with the first shots. He has the tools, it is a matter of believing in it, he says.

“Pol’s way of looking at tennis is very good and it helps me a lot, and I think it can also be seen on the court; my way of playing now is different from a few years ago,” says Badosa, determined to take that step forward even though the investment is not without its toll. Serena Williams set the path and the rest have followed suit: minimum investment for maximum return. “Tennis is going down that path, the future is like that, and in that sense, he is going to be a great player.” [Toledo] “She believes in me so much that in the end I ended up believing in her too, and that is very important. She has given me a lot of strength,” continues the tennis player, who previously expected more, was more reactive than proactive, and fell into those guerrilla wars that often ended up penalizing her.

“It is above all a question of strokes and mentality,” she specifies. “It is about being well prepared in difficult moments, especially against the best; going for the point before them, daring to take that step,” continues the player from Begur, conditioned by a chronic back injury that she has been carrying for 14 months. In any case, in the first talks between her and her coach they had already agreed that the plan was for her to be much more direct and to sharpen the first impact both in the serve and in the return. In the end, they concluded, there is no other option in this game of breaking and tearing that has been imposed, taking into account also that most of the year the competition is on fast surfaces that have been diluting the classic profile of the Spanish tennis player; that is, less debate and greater forcefulness.

Betting on extremes

“Everything is going in two shots, very fast. Any player, if you lose sight of her, is pim-pam-pum; she does a breaktwo, three… And you say: my goodness! These are details, so I concentrate much more on the first shots, on the serve and the return, the second serve. In general, I try to shoot much more. I am inspired by the players who are at the top, because in the end that is where I want to be and it is the path I must follow,” observes the quarter-finalist, the third who most aces She has made 22 in the tournament, behind only Donna Vekic (25) and Aryna Sabalenka (49), which are big names in that sense. On the other hand, pushing harder with the first ball in play affects the double faults record; she has committed 30 so far, only surpassed by the already eliminated Coco Gauff (38).

Her risk has resulted in a considerable number of winning shots, the 91 she has made – almost 23 on average per match – and which place her among the most offensive players in the tournament. But again, the risk has a downside: she also made 91 unforced errors, thus placing her among the players who pay the highest price in this section.

“Sometimes, my goal would be to go to the net more and that is costing me a little more,” she explains. “But despite being that solid player who plays hard on important points, I also want to shoot a little more. There will be days when I will miss, because it is a game I am not used to, but I have to accept something that is very difficult for me, the mistakes. It has not been easy at the beginning, because I like to fight for points because of the Spanish mentality, but I have the shots and I have to believe in it. At the moment it is working,” says Badosa, who upon landing on the North American tour —14 wins in 16 matches so far, and the success in Cincinnati— decided to put aside her phobias and forget about the balls and the speed of the courts.

“I spoke to Pol this year and told him: look, this year I’m not going to complain about the balls or the conditions, because they are what they are and if you’re a good player, you have to adapt; the players who are able to adapt to the circumstances are those who are going to win more matches. When I saw the conditions this year, I said to myself: ‘ok, I have to serve well. The first shots’. That’s my mentality,” he concludes.

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