Badosa looking for Badosa

Spain approaches the challenge of the final phase of the Billie Jean King Cup with a new stiletto: it is Paula Badosa, a first-timer and with the desire to reverse the complex individual situation on the choral stage of the competition.

“I like challenges, and that's why I'm here.

I told Anabel [Medina, the captain] that if she came it was to win”, anticipates the Catalan, who last night decided the series against Kazakhstan by beating Elena Rybakina in the second individual round (6-2, 3-6 and 6- 4) and try to get back on track after a very sinuous campaign.

It has not been an easy course for her, exposed for the first time to the vertigo of heights.

She started out as the number two in the world and with an exciting victory in Sydney, but spring came and she caught a cold, and later she got into a quagmire from which she has not been able to get out.

There is no lack of work or appetite, self-demand or self-punishment when things don't work out, but since she lost her step on the ground tour she hasn't been able to perform according to her new condition.

Consequently, her hierarchy has suffered – she is now 13th on the WTA list – and last week she did not compete among the strongest at the Guadalajara Masters, where she shone (semifinals) last season. .

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His time on the big stages offers a contrast.

He managed to reach the second week in Australia and Wimbledon, eighth in both tournaments, but fizzled out at Roland Garros (third round) and left even before the US Open (second).

"I have to get my confidence back," she said at Flushing Meadows.

"I don't even win at parcheesi," she shared shortly after, after she was eliminated the first time in Tokyo.

“I don't have sky-high confidence, but I accept it.

I just have to work and work, ”she prolonged when she still did not recover her good records.

After a disappointing spring and summer, with autumn the course has not changed either.

She had no choice against Petra Kvitova in Ostrava;

she lost her nerve after losing to Danielle Collins in San Diego;

and before topping the Spanish roster in Glasgow, she was forced to withdraw when she met her friend Victoria Azarenka at the Guadalajara tournament.

In any case, during those last stops she preferred to stick more to the game than to the dictatorship of the results, in search of good feelings and of herself.

And in those is Badosa, clinging to the day to day, hunting and capturing that dominant player who was crowned in 2021 in Indian Wells and who later brushed the top.

At the moment, the Catalan is enjoying her debut with Spain.

In 2014, the then captain, Conchita Martínez, called her as a guest when she was a junior and she was only 16 years old to gain experience during a series against Poland.

But later, after suffering a psychological bump, she was lost in a nebula.

When she escaped, she straightened up and made her way to the noblest area of ​​the

, indicated as one of the references of the circuit;

she could have made her debut last year in Prague, but she gave priority to the Masters and then, in April, she was also unable to participate in the qualifying series against the Netherlands due to physical problems.

Due to the calendar or injuries, Medina has not been able to count on her so far, leader of a team made up of Párrizas (72nd in the world), Cristina Bucsa (107th), Rebeka Masarova (133rd) and Aliona Bolsova (195th), and who try to overcome the sensitive absences of Garbiñe Muguruza (by resignation) and Sara Sorribes (injured right foot).

“I come with a lot of desire and for me it is a motivation to stop playing like Paula Badosa and do it representing Spain.

So I will try to give my best level.

I think we can go to the semi-finals and, from there, fight to win, ”she said before the debut against Kazakhstan.

Parrizas signed a long-suffering victory (6-4, 2-6 and 7-6(5) against Julia Putintseva (55th) in the opening of the series, which will be followed by this Thursday's duel against Great Britain, which attends without its main representative, the young Emma Raducanu.

In the final phase of Glasgow, 12 teams have met, divided into four groups of three;

the first classified will be measured in the semifinals on Saturday.

Spain, champion of the competition six times (1989, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2008) and today third in the world

, tries to revive after difficult times.

She does it with Badosa in front.

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