“We train as much or more than anyone else,” Badosa addresses criticism linking her relationship with Tsitsipas to poor form

Paula Badosa responded to the criticism blaming her relationship with Stefanos Tsitsipas for her recent poor results. The Spanish player was absent from the WTA Tour during the second half of the 2023 season, and despite her return in January this year, she has not been able to get back to her best results.

Currently ranked world No. 65 with a 16-13 record this season, Badosa is still on the path to return to the elite ranks. However, it has not been a consistent rise, as she has suffered several surprising defeats throughout the year.

The Badosa-Tsitsipas relationship went public in May 2023, generating great excitement among fans. However, in May of this year, Badosa announced on social media that they had decided to "part ways" after a year of being together. A few days later, the couple was seen together again in Monte-Carlo and Paris, and they both confirmed that they had reunited after a few weeks apart.

The 26-year-old Spaniard recently responded in an interview with La Vanguardia, acknowledging that it has been difficult to face the criticism she receives due to her relationship: "Criticism is never easy to deal with, although sometimes we find it funny because people don't realise that we are two people who share the same passion. Sometimes, apart from separately, we also train together, so in the end we train as much or more than anyone else.”

“I could understand this criticism of distraction more if it were with a person from another world, but being two athletes with a very clear objective, what I think is that people don't even know what they are judging," Badosa said.

The former world No. 2 also mentioned that she and Tsitsipas have now decided to keep their relationship more private: "Personally, what bothers me the most is that people talk about other people's realities. I can understand criticism of my professional side, of my tennis, of whether I lose or win, but linking that to something personal seems disrespectful to me," Badosa added.

"He already explained and I have nothing else to say, I mean, it's our private life. I think one of the things that we didn't like is that it was very public, so now we want to keep it to ourselves. We know it's not going to be easy because we are two public people so people will ask, but we want to keep it more to ourselves," Badosa said.