PREVIEW: 2022 WTA Tour – Madrid Open selected Ro32 matches

Paula Badosa (1) (10/11) vs Simona Halep (10/11) 

This is a blockbuster 2nd round match if I ever saw one.  With Iga Swiatek absolutely steamrolling the WTA Tour at present, it’s been quite easy to overlook all the strides made by Paul Badosa in the rankings. 

Badosa is now World No.2 and is seeded 1st this week (Iga Swiatek has decided to give the mere mortals a chance in Madrid by taking a break).  You can’t really overstate how meteoric Badosa’s rise has been over the past 12 months.  She needed a wildcard to participate in last year’s Madrid Open (where she duly reached the semi-finals).  

She would then go on to win Indian Wells and reach the WTA Finals for the first time.  Badosa won her 3rd career title in Sydney earlier this year.  Since then, it has been ultra-consistent (if unspectacular) for Badosa.  She reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells and rose to number two in the world following a semi-final run in Stuttgart last week.  Badosa has proven herself to be a highly competent clay-court player, reaching three consecutive semi-finals on the surface last season.  She also reached her maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal in Paris last year.  How will she deal with the unique pressure of being the top seed for such a prestigious event?   

Simona Halep will be delighted to have easily moved past Shuai Zhang in her opening round match.  It was her first match on clay since May last year.  It took her win-loss record for the year to 16-4.  She won in Melbourne and picked up semi-finals in Dubai and Indian Wells.  She seems to be coming into her own after an uncharacteristically poor 2021 campaign.  Halep is the most accomplished clay-court player in action this week.  The former French Open champ is also a two-time Madrid Open winner.  In fact, she has reached the final here on four occasions.  She is also a three-time Rome finalist.  Her victory over Zhang was potentially the start of a new era for Halep, who has recently partnered up with legendary coach Patrick Mouratoglou.  The enigmatic Frenchman was a driving force behind Serena Williams’ later success and he could help Halep develop a more ruthless streak.   

The Verdict: Halep to win in three at 7/2- This will be the first career meeting between Halep and Badosa.  I really think that the Halep-Mouratoglou partnership is going to pay rich dividends.  For all her success, she has often struck me as a player who battles to motivate herself.  Badosa may also feel the nerves of playing the headline act this week.  She was decisive against Kudermetova but this will be a much different test.  Something tells me that Halep could wear the Spaniard down in three sets.   

Tamara Zidansk (6/4) vs Victoria Azarenka (15) (8/15) 

24-year-old Slovenian Tamara Zidansk is your prototypical clay-court specialist.  She operated in the doldrums of the women’s game for some time.  But she reached the first of three WTA finals in 2019, losing to Yulia Putintseva in the Nuremburg Cup.  All three of final appearances have come on clay.  Two of those finals came last year, as she finished runner-up at the Copa Colsanitas before winning her maiden title in Switzerland.  

Perhaps more significantly, Zidansk enjoyed an unbelievable run to the semi-finals of Roland Garros last year.  She beat the likes of Badosa and Andreescu in the process.  2022 has been slightly less rewarding for the pugnacious Slovenian.  She is 6-6 for the year (which is pretty weak considering she reached the semi-finals in Adelaide).  She will have felt especially gutted with her performance in Stuttgart last week, losing her opening clay-court match of the season to Laura Siegemund.  But she was far more convincing in her opening match in Madrid, defeating fellow clay-court specialist Beatriz Haddad Maia in straight sets.   

Former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka will be thrilled with her victory against Viktorija Golubic.  The Belarusian is hanging onto her world no.17 ranking by her fingertips.  A tweak in the WTA system- necessitated by the pandemic- has allowed her to hang in there despite a poor start to the season.  Since reaching the 4th round of the Aussie Open, Azarenka has been 4-5 for the season.  She hasn’t played a huge amount of tennis this season.  She last featured in Miami, where she inexplicably walked off the court during her match against Linda Fruhvirtova. 

Azarenka has endured some pretty well publicized drama off the court over the past few years.  But she has enjoyed a slight renaissance in recent years, reaching the US Open final in 2020 and the Indian Wells final last year.  Can she conquer her mental demons and overcome Zidansk this week?   

The Verdict: Zidansk to win in three at 9/2- Zidansk leads the head-to-head with Azarenka 1-0, easily beating the Belarusian in straight sets at the 2020 Monterrey Open.  I think that Zidansk has the clay-court craft to frustrate Azarenka.  It’s no secret that clay is Azarenka’s least favourite surface.  She obviously doesn’t get the same purchase on her groundstrokes on these slower surfaces.  Azarenka- at her best- pairs good footwork with aggressive groundstrokes.  She isn’t quite as mobile as she once was and she has spent very little time on court this year.  I think Zidansk could outlast her this week.