Tennis - US Open 2024 - Paula Badosa : "What a day man, can I go to sleep ?"
Le jour et la nuit. Rayonnante depuis le début de la quinzaine new-yorkaise, Paula Badosa a été incapable de reproduire ses schémas de jeu habituels face à Emma Navarro. L'Espagnole, battue dans la première manche (6-2), menait pourtant 5-1 dans la seconde, avant de s'effondrer, et de laisser échapper sa première demi-finale en Grand Chelem (6-2, 7-5). C'est un mélange d'émotions et de pression qui ont eu raison de Badosa, qui revient au plus haut niveau après de nombreuses blessures et de galères ces dernières années. Elle devrait tout de même faire son retour dans le top 20 lundi prochain.
Video : @USOpen
Video : @USOpen
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SportsTranscript
00:00THE MATCH
00:03OK, let's begin.
00:05Paula, if you could, your thoughts on the match.
00:08Well, I'm very disappointed with my level today.
00:11I think she played really good and she managed the situation really well.
00:15And I was a complete disaster.
00:18Thank you. Questions in English? One question each.
00:21Brian.
00:24In your mind, what changed the momentum
00:27from when you were up 5-1?
00:31I never had the momentum in this match.
00:33I played four or five games OK.
00:36It was 5-1, but I never felt myself in the court.
00:39I didn't feel serving well, playing well from the baseline.
00:43That's my biggest strength.
00:46So I think today, it's surprisingly, because I was playing pretty good
00:50the other matches, I was feeling good.
00:52But when I walked into the court,
00:54I think I didn't manage well the situation or the emotions.
00:58It was a bit hard to handle for me.
01:01I wanted to win so much that sometimes that doesn't help at all.
01:07Brian.
01:09I think you just said you were a disaster or something like that.
01:12Do you mean the way you were playing or the way you sort of mentally reacted?
01:16Everything.
01:17This is the first time that it happens to me in my career.
01:19I think losing a set from 5-1 up, I never did that before.
01:24So I think there's always a first time for something.
01:28So it had to come today, unfortunately.
01:31And I don't know.
01:33I still need to think what happened because I had two service games there also.
01:40I started to miss. I lost, I don't know, 20 points almost in a row.
01:44It's very weird for me because I'm quite a consistent player.
01:48So I wasn't expecting that either.
01:50So I'm quite disappointed.
01:54A tough question to ask a player after a loss.
01:56But could you talk about Emma and her game?
02:00What makes her strong and why she's had this run here, please?
02:04Well, she's a very calm player, first of all.
02:06And that's very important when you go to a slam to get the weight.
02:11I mean, put your emotions on the side.
02:13That's maybe the thing that sometimes I don't handle pretty well.
02:17And she does that really well.
02:19And then she's very talented, very good backhand and very good forehand.
02:22She has a variety in her game.
02:26So that's really important.
02:28And she's a great player. So congrats to her.
02:31Courtney, then David.
02:32Courtney Nguyen, WTA, Paula.
02:35Did you feel normal, I guess, this morning when you woke up?
02:39Or warming up, everything, the way it's felt in the past few days?
02:42And you said it was your first, obviously, time on Ash.
02:45I don't know if stepping out there kind of reminded you of the occasion or something.
02:50Yeah, I was great in the morning.
02:52I just stepped on the court and I felt weird.
02:56And I was surprised at myself,
03:00because normally I like to play these things,
03:03but I think it's not the court, it was more the round for me, you know?
03:07And seeing myself sometimes so close, so far but so close at the same time,
03:11and with a good level,
03:13your mind is very tough to stay in the present, you know?
03:17And I think my mind was everywhere except in the present.
03:21And it's something I've been working and I've been improving so much,
03:24but it's something that also hurt me so much in my career, you know?
03:28Sometimes wanting it so much and thinking ahead of it,
03:32and sometimes I can't even focus in that moment.
03:35And I think today was a little bit that, you know?
03:37David.
03:39David Gane, tennis.com.
03:40With how successful you have been this summer leading up to this result,
03:43do you think with some distance you'll be able to look back
03:45on the totality of the last few weeks
03:47and say this was maybe not as much of a disaster as...
03:50Yeah, now I say it's a disaster, but I know it's...
03:54When I started in Washington, I would sign all the results for sure.
04:00And coming from where I'm coming from, look, I have to be happy.
04:03I don't know, maybe I'm 15 in the race.
04:05So I wasn't expecting that a few months ago.
04:08So on that, I'm really proud of myself.
04:11The thing that for me makes me the way I am today, it's a slam.
04:17And, you know, your dream is always to make your last round in a slam, you know?
04:21And performing the way I performed today,
04:24I know that if it wasn't a slam, I would perform well.
04:28So that's what's a little bit...
04:30Why I'm like this today, you know?
04:33Because I didn't know how to handle it the best way.
04:36And now I have to wait four months for the next slam.
04:39So it sucks.
04:40Last question in English, Charlie.
04:42Charlie from Athletic.
04:43I just wondered if you're the kind of person
04:46who will sort of think about what happened today
04:50and, you know, why you weren't able to perform,
04:51or just try and kind of put it out of your mind and, you know, forget about it?
04:56No, I'm the first one.
04:57I'm very obsessive and I think about the things
05:01and I don't like to make the same mistake two times.
05:04That's also what brought me where I am.
05:08But maybe that also I will think about it too much.
05:12So I will try to...
05:14Especially my team will help me, like, not to...
05:17How do you say?
05:20Yeah, myself, like, how to destroy myself.
05:26I even forgot how to speak English today, imagine.
05:29What a day, man. Can I go to sleep?