The tense final minutes of a victory that left Paula Badosa one win away from the brink of the world’s 10 showcased all the qualities that have underpinned her extraordinary rise this season.
Ons Jabeur had struggled all evening to find her best tennis, but as she served to stay in the match at a set and 5-2 down, the Tunisian’s game was belatedly sparking into life. Jabeur saved one match point with a crisp, ankle-height volley and another with an overhead. A conservative return proved Badosa’s undoing on a third, and when Jabeur not only held but immediately opened up a 0-40 lead in the next game, the Spaniard’s first serve deserting her, a result that had looked a formality only moments earlier suddenly hung in the balance.
The Badosa who started this year ranked 70th in the world might have buckled. The Badosa who will rise to a career high of 11th if she prevails in Sunday’s final against Victoria Azarenka refused to yield. Badosa had shown steely resolve to see out a straight sets win over Angelique Kerber in the previous round after the German had clawed her way back into contention from a set and 5-2 down, and her self-belief was once again evident here. An off-forehand winner and a couple of solid points from the back brought the 21st seed back to deuce, and although she would miss a further two match points – the first when a thunderbolt forehand from Jabeur kissed the back edge of the baseline, the next with a nervy double fault, her second of the game – Badosa finally clinched the contest at the sixth opportunity, a Jabeur backhand drifting wide.
Badosa may not have Jabeur’s extensive repertoire of shots at her disposal, but this was a performance that spoke volumes about her virtues, from the excellence of her return game to her superb movement and teak-tough mentality. Jabeur, who with her quarter-final win over Anett Kontaevit became the first Arab player to make the top 10, had rightly stolen the headlines going into the contest. But Badosa’s progress in the California desert, where, in addition to Kerber, she has also seen off Coco Gauff for the loss of just four games and beaten French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, has been no less impressive. Like Jabeur, she will rise to a career-high ranking next week, breaking into the top 20 for the first time regardless of the outcome against Azarenka, and like Jabeur she is closing in on a possible maiden appearance at the season-ending WTA Tour finals in Guadalajara.
“I think I improved a lot on my tennis,” said Badosa, the first Spanish woman to reach the final since Conchita Martinez in 1996, following her 6-3, 6-3 win. “Mentally, I think I’m very confident. I’m believing every point. Every day I’m working very hard as well. I think I’m progressing on a little bit of everything and that’s what is making my level going up. That’s why I’m in a final and playing against the best of the world.”
Azarenka, a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 winner over Jelena Ostapenko, will nonetheless have taken note of Badosa’s recent struggles down the home straight. The Belarusian, twice the champion in Indian Wells, recovered from a set and a break down against Ostapenko, and vowed afterwards: “I’m going to fight until the end, so if you [want] to beat me, you have to beat me all the way.”
Badosa, for her part, needs no reminding of Azarenka’s pedigree. “Vika, she’s an amazing champion,” said the Spaniard. “She has been here a lot of times. She has a lot of experience there. I expect a tough match.
“I’ve seen her a lot, a lot of finals, winning grand slams, 1000 tournaments. I know how she’s playing. She’s very intense. She’s a tough one. She’s a competitor. She fights until the last ball.
“But I like these kind of matches. I’ve never been through to a final, so I can’t wait to play it. I always dreamed to be in one. I can’t wait.”