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.
"People don't even know what they are judging" - Paula Badosa
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.
![Tsitsipas and Badosa training together at 2023 Wimbledon.](https://r.testifier.nl/Acbs8526SDKI/resizing_type:fit/width:1280/plain/https://s3-newsifier.ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/tennisuptodate.com/images/2023-12/tsitsipasbadosa-imago1031277052h-65849146b8e9c.jpg@webp)
Tsitsipas and Badosa training together at 2023 Wimbledon.
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.