Best Friend Aryna Sabalenka ‘Laughed and Screamed’ After Paula Badosa’s Breakup with ‘Toxic’ Ex-Boyfriend Stefanos Tsitsipas

When Paula Badosa ended things for good with Stefanos Tsitsipas, her best friend Aryna Sabalenka was super happy. While Tsitsipas hasn’t yet competed since his second-round exit at the French Open, Sabalenka and Badosa are currently in Berlin, participating in the WTA 500 tournament.

And here, after upsetting Coco Gauff in the second round, Badosa opened up about her “toxic” relationship with Tsitsipas. The Spanish ace revealed the split with the Greek ace was harder because, “when there are toxic things around, it makes everything much harder than a normal breakup.” And so when they finally ended things, Badosa sent a text to Sabalenka revealing the breakup.

Honestly, when she finished the whatever-she-called-it, I was that friend that sent her a two-min audio, laughing, screaming, saying, ‘Yes, girl! You made it!’

Aryna Sabalenka said (H/T: Bounces)

Badosa also revealed that she is finally “feeling strong again” and that she has been in a “good environment“. And while describing the relationship, Badosa also made a joke, saying, “Now I want to see tomorrow’s headlines: ‘Paula attacks Tsitsipas’… Well, he deserves it!“

Badosa and Tsitsipas started their high-profile relationship in mid-2023 and split after one year. But they reconciled a few weeks later, only to separate permanently last year after Wimbledon.

Badosa confirmed the split last year after uploading pictures on her Instagram wearing sashes that read, ‘Sexy & Single’ and ’28 and Still a 10′ on her 28th birthday. Last December, Tsitsipas made his relationship public with his new girlfriend, Kristen Thoms, through a vlog.

Earlier this year, Tsitsipas said he prefers ‘non-tennis’ girlfriends because there’s “always competitiveness“. In the comment section of the clip on Instagram, Badosa dropped four laughing emojis. Also, Tsitsipas’ mom, Julia Salnikova, during an interview this year, said the reason behind the split was media overexposure because it was a “burden for him“.

Aryna Sabalenka’s coach, Jason Stacy on what went wrong during the clay swing

Aryna Sabalenka did not have a great run on the clay swing. After completing the Sunshine Double by beating Elena Rybakina in Indian Wells and Coco Gauff in Miami, the World No.1 played three clay-court events, losing all before reaching the semifinals.

Hailey Baptiste stopped her title defense by beating her in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open, and later at the Italian Open, Sorana Cirstea ended her run in the third round. At the French Open, Diana Shnaider eliminated her in the last eight. Sabalenka’s performance coach, Jason Stacy, during his interview with Tennis365, revealed what went wrong during the clay swing.

On clay, we made a decision; we had to do it for a couple of reasons, and it didn’t go as we wanted. Perhaps the decision we made, regarding the planning and the timing of certain aspects in our approach, sounded good, and we all agreed, and thought it could work very well based on last year’s results, but, if one only goes by the results, maybe it wasn’t the best plan, so we will reassess what worked, what didn’t work, what we could do differently next season to prepare better.

Sabalenka has so far made two finals on grass, losing both (the 2018 Eastbourne International to Caroline Wozniacki and the 2022 Rosmalen Grass Court Championships to Ekaterina Alexandrova). This year, Sabalenka has played four finals. Before completing the Sunshine Double, she lost to Rybakina at the Australian Open and defeated Marta Kostyuk at the Brisbane International to defend her title.

After Berlin, Sabalenka will compete at Wimbledon, with the main draw set to start on June 29. Sabalenka is a three-time semifinalist in the tournament, also reaching the stage last year, losing to eventual runner-up Amanda Anisimova.

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