LONDON — One scene keeps coming back on social media: Paula Badosa in Stefanos Tsitsipas’s box during one of the Greek player’s matches at Wimbledon, back when the two were a couple. Seated a row behind the player’s father and coach, Apostolos Tsitsipas, the Spaniard’s face shows a clear expression of contempt and discomfort.
“That video has been sent to me many times,” she says with a laugh. “My face says it all. It explains a lot of things. That video is the summary! Anyone who has been close to the situation knows what I mean,” the former world No. 2 tells CLAY and a small group of media in London.
Badosa revealed days ago at a press conference during Queen’s that she went through “toxic situations” during her relationship with Tsitsipas that continued after the break-up.
A few days before Wimbledon began, she went further: “There were many of them. I suffered a lot for a year, what I and the people around me went through was very difficult, and now, seeing myself well again and with that strength, it also gave me the strength to speak about what I went through — so that many people could connect with that story.”
“Everything comes out in the end. But he is a person — him and those around him — that I do not want to name any more or dwell on. I simply wanted to make it clear, as a person, that I have character too. And when you sometimes let it out and close a chapter, you feel a little freer, and that is what I want: to turn the page and not mention those people again,” she said.
“You can maintain a good relationship with an ex when it involves normal people and normal relationships. But when it is not like that… I do not need to explain much more. You can see every day how the other person makes everything more difficult,” she had said days earlier.
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“Other players confirmed it, because in the end, when someone is inside the tour, everyone knows everyone… In the end, I will put it more in terms of being a woman: people only see the injuries, right? But there were many more things going on behind the scenes, situations that are not visible.”
Badosa is happy. Ahead of her Wimbledon debut against North American Emma Navarro, scheduled for Tuesday, she admits to feeling very good: “I am taking everything more calmly, without putting pressure on myself. And if things do not go as planned, the sun will still rise the next day.”
