Paula Badosa showed signs of her former top-five form during a 6-2, 6-3 victory over 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the first round of the Italian Open on Tuesday.
Badosa was ranked as high as No. 2 before she missed the second half of last year due to a back injury that has also slowed her this season. She’s now No. 126.
Badosa jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first set before a 45-minute rain delay and then picked up where she left off against the 40th-ranked Andreeva, who was the WTA tour’s newcomer of the year in 2023.
Badosa reached the quarterfinals in Rome last year but that turned out to be her penultimate tournament of the season.
It was Badosa’s first win since beating Simona Halep at the Miami Open last month in Halep’s return from a doping ban. It also ended Badosa’s six-match losing streak against players ranked in the top 40 that had stretched back to Rome last year.
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Also on the red clay at the Foro Italico, Shelby Rogers routed Italian wild-card entry Lisa Pigato 6-1, 6-0.
The only other matches scheduled on the opening day featured 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez against Ana Bogdan and Yulia Putintseva against Martina Trevisan.
The men’s tournament starts on Wednesday with Novak Djokovic as the top seed and 10-time champion Rafael Nadal also entered. But Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz both withdrew due to injuries.
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