Former world number two Paula Badosa is unstoppable at the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open. The Spaniard convincingly beat Hungarian Panna Udvardy 6-4, 6-1 in the Round of 16, thus reaching the quarter-finals for the third consecutive tournament week. Badosa has now played for the last 18 days and twelve matches and clearly seems to be enjoying her winning streak. Today, in the second match after 11 am, there will be a reunion with Mayar Sherif. Badosa played against the Egyptian just on Monday in the final in Iasi, and now the two will meet again in the quarter-finals in Hamburg.
„We were on the same plane and talked for what felt like two and a half hours. As I always say: We are ambitious players, but after the match I'm friendly to everyone – to those who are nice, of course. She's a nice person, so I have no problem with that,“ said Badosa about Sherif, who was also cheered on by the Egyptian Consul General Dahlia Abdel-Fattah during her round of 16 victory over Elsa Jacquempt from France (6-2, 6-3).
Also through to the quarter-finals is top seed Oleksandra Oliynykova after her 7:6, 3:6, 6:2 success over Spanish left-hander Leyre Romero Gormaz. She will be challenged on Friday by Elina Avanesyan. The Armenian beat Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6:3, 2:6, 6:2. Avanesyan is playing her best WTA tournament this year and has stormed from qualifying into the last eight.
The highlight of quarter-final Friday is undoubtedly the evening match at 5 p.m., in which Tamara Korpatsch will aim to use her home advantage against the second-seeded Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina. „I don't know her yet. We've never played each other. But I'll watch a bit more and will certainly be well prepared then,“ says the Hamburg native, who is also looking forward to the support of the Hanseatic audience again.
There is also German participation in the double quarter-finals. Nastasja Schunk and Julia Stusek won in the match tie-break against Leyre Romero Gormaz/Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain) and will face Anastasia Detiuc (Czech Republic)/Irina Khromacheva in the second match after 12pm on Court M2.