Stefanos Tsitsipas recently shared the struggles that her girlfriend Paula Badosa had to endure during an injury hiatus in the past year.
Badosa, a former World No. 2, battled a knee injury early last season, but it was a chronic back condition that set her on the treatment table for almost the entire second half of 2023.
The injury, which the Spaniard revealed to be a stress fracture, developed during the Italian Open, and it became more severe while playing Marta Kostyuk at Wimbledon. Badosa and Tsistsipas were expected to team up in mixed doubles at SW19 before injury cruelly canceled those plans.
Following her retirement at Wimbledon, the 26-year-old WTA star did not feature until late November, when she was nominated in Spain's Billie Jean King Cup squad. However, she did not play a single minute in the Finals.
During her injury break, Badosa frequently accompanied her boyfriend, ATP star Tsitsipas, to tournaments. The Greek has since opened up about Badosa's injury woes on Tennis Channel and lauded her resilience.
"She’s much better. I have been obviously there the entire time, seeing her progress and seeing how she develops and gets better."
"Paula has had a very bad injury in her back. People do not understand the difficult times that she has gone through. It’s quite unbelievable that I kind of followed her footsteps of the injury – had a very similar injury. Mine came about five months later, right on the same spot where she had it."
Tsitsipas was in a similar predicament during the 2023 ATP Finals, during which a back injury forced him to withdraw from the tournament. The three-time Monte Carlo champion explained how Badosa's ordeal affected him.
"She did have it much more severe than I did. And to go through these difficulties and to see her suffer so much made me suffer even more myself, you know, being in a similar situation months later."
The duo have since regained their fitness and are looking for a strong clay-court season. Tsitsipas recently won his first title of 2024 in Monte Carlo, while Badosa started the clay-court part of the season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
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