Stat of the Day: Badosa 1st Spanish woman in Madrid SFs

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With a 6-4, 7-5 quarterfinal win over Belinda Bencic in Madrid on Wednesday, Paula Badosa made history, becoming the first Spanish woman ever to reach the semifinals of her home event.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” the 23-year-old Badosa said. “I didn’t expect this at all. Doing my first semifinals, my best result in my career in front of all my people, I couldn’t ask for anything else.”

The WTA 1000 event debuted on the WTA calendar in 2009, and since then two Spanish women had reached the quarterfinals—Anabel Medina Garrigues in 2013 and Carla Suarez Navarro in 2015 and 2018—but neither went any further, making Badosa the first home player to make it to the final four.

Meanwhile, five Spanish men have been to the semifinals or better since Madrid became a clay-court Masters 1000 stop in 2009: Rafael Nadal (four titles, three finals and two semifinals), David Ferrer (two semifinals) and Roberto Bautista Agut, Nicolas Almagro and Pablo Andujar (one semifinal each).

Standing between Badosa and a spot in the final will be No. 1-ranked Ashleigh Barty, who’s won 17 of her last 18 matches on clay dating back to her run to her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2019. The only loss, however, came to Badosa, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of Charleston last month.