BARCELONA tennis prodigy Paula Badosa Gibert has become the first-ever Spanish woman to win at Indian Wells, known as the 'fifth Grand Slam', after dispatching rival Victoria Azarenka in three tough sets.
At just 23, Paula now holds two Grand Slam titles and has already been world number two.
Now at world number 27, the New York-born whizz-kid, head-hunted by Federation Cup national team captain, multiple Olympic medallist and Wimbledon winner Conchita Martínez when she was only 16, Paula played in her first-ever Masters 1000 final today (Sunday), which turned out to be a gruelling three hours and four minutes long.
The first set, which she won 7-6(5), was physically exhausting for the gifted youngster – who has been on the WTA circuit for six years already – taking a full hour and 19 minutes to claim victory over Azarenka.
But the former number one from Belarus managed to turn her game around in set two, beating Paula 6-2, forcing an agonising but epic third set in which the Spaniard showed herself to be decisive at the crucial moments, clinching the title after a tie-break that ended with her 7-6(2) victory.
A turning point in Paula's career, today's result in the Californian desert comes after a week of wins against current WTA greats including three-times Grand Slam winner Angélique Kerber and current world number five Barbora Krejčíková.
As well as taking home the US$1.2 million prize pot, Paula is now inches away from qualifying for November's WTA Finals in Guadalajara, México, which is only open to the best eight female tennis players on earth.
Indian Wells, never before won by a Spanish woman, is Paula's first Grand Slam of her WTA career and her second overall after she won the junior title at Paris' Roland Garros stadium in 2015, shortly before her professional début later that year.
Her first WTA tournament was the Miami Masters 1000, where she reached the third round.
Paula was Spanish national champion in 2017 after beating the now-retired Canary-Island household name Carla Suárez, 33, in a three-set final.
She was born in Manhattan, New York, where her parents Mireia Gibert and Josep Badosa – originally from Barcelona – had emigrated to pursue careers in fashion, but the family returned to Spain's second-largest city to live when Paula was seven.
Paula played at the Platja d'Aro tennis club until she was 14, when she began a three-year stint in Valencia alongside José Altur and Pancho Alvariño at Tenisval before returning to Barcelona aged 17.
Today's victory comes after a tough year which included a whole month off the circuit, following a positive Covid-19 test and an enforced three-week quarantine, which led to her crashing out of the first round at the Australian Open when she finally started back in competition, beaten by Liudmila Samsónova.
Reaching the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, her best WTA Grand Slam result to date, and rising to world number 33, sealed Paula's place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this summer – held a year late due to the pandemic – although here, she had to retire midway through the quarter-final match against Markéta Vondroušová after suffering heatstroke.
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