“She is the best, I love her,” Aryna Sabalenka lauds her doubles partner Paula Badosa following their win at World Tennis League
Team Kites beat Team Eagles in the first match of the ongoing World Tennis League 2023.
Paula Badosa and Aryna Sabalenka (Source: Screengrab/X)
The World Tennis League has already kicked off in Abu Dhabi and the tournament boasts four great teams this season. Two of those teams, namely Team Kites and Team Eagles, went head-to-head against each other on the first day of the tournament, and the former won the match to start their campaign on a positive note.
Team Kites is led by World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and features Paula Badosa, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov. Team Eagles, on the other hand, is led by Daniil Medvedev and has Andrey Rublev, Mirra Andreeva and Sofia Kenin.
Right at the face of it, the chemistry of Team Kites looks flawless, as Badosa and Sabalenka are great friends while the former is in a relationship with Stefanos Tsitsipas. It showed in the results as well.
The first match of the faceoff was the women’s doubles match between Sabalenka-Badosa and Andreeva-Kenin. The Belarusian and Spaniard had the upper hand right from the beginning and ended up winning the match pretty convincingly by a 6-3 margin.
Following their win, Team captain Aryna Sabalenka was all praise for her teammate. She said that Paula Badosa is the best, and she is happy to have her by her side.
She’s the best. I love her and I’m really happy to have her by my side. We really have this good connection, we are really good friends---I think our dance is the key right?Sabalenka said.
Paula Badosa hilariously replied to that by saying:
I agree.
Aryna Sabalenka’s Team Kites beat Daniil Medvedev and Co. in the first match of WTL
After the duo of Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa beat Mirra Andreeva and Sofia Kenin, things took an interesting turn in the men’s doubles match. After a pretty close battle, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev beat Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6.
Next came the singles matches. The first match between Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov was won by Team Eagles. The Russian took home the victory and kept at this point, they were winning the match.
However, captain Sabalenka beat Andreeva in the last battle of the match 6-2. Her clutch performance made sure that Team Kites began their campaign in the tournament with a victory.
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Rishab Dutta
(794 Articles Published)