Paula Badosa has agreed with players demanding that the
WTA and
ATP should pay for players' physiotherapy after heavier balls on the Tour led to a greater risk of injury.
The former World No. 2 has missed a large part of the 2023 season due to injury. Badosa sustained a stress fracture in her spine at the Rome Open in May, and consequently retired from her second-round match at Wimbledon before withdrawing altogether from the
US Open. She then announced that she would be putting an early end to her season.
Meanwhile, several players have been vocal about the greater risk of injury caused by the use of heavier balls on the ATP and WTA Tours. At the US Open,
Marketa Vondrousova attributed the cause of her arm injury to the heavy balls at the Slam.
Badosa agrees as Gastao Elias makes physiotherapy demand
Players such as Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, and Ons Jabeur have also complained about this issue in the past, but Portuguese tennis player Gastao Elias came up with a more specific way of demonstrating his grievance with the ATP Tour's use of heavy balls.
"I demand @atptour to pay for all the physiotherapy I will need after playing with these balls they are making us play with. I’ve been on tour for many years and I’ve never seen anything like this. This is inhumane," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
American player
Tennys Sandgren shared his approval of the idea, writing: "I agree. Never seen anything like it."
It was at this point that Badosa chimed in to add that the WTA Tour should have to do the same thing as she called for change from both governing bodies.
"Agree! The issue is not only ATP unfortunately… With the WTA we are having the same problems for years as well. We need a change from both sides," she wrote.