Common ground key factor in rekindled ‘Tsitsidosa’ romance
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas during his French Open second-round match against Germany's Daniel Altmaier.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – Stefanos Tsitsipas said that being in a relationship with a fellow professional tennis player was a breath of fresh air, with the Greek world No. 9 and his Spanish partner Paula Badosa arriving at the French Open having rekindled their romance.
Badosa, 26, and Tsitsipas, 25, first made their relationship official on social media in 2023 at Roland Garros and were often seen at each other’s matches the rest of the season, while also posting pictures on their joint Instagram account.
Having split earlier in 2024,
“We both share the same passion and we both do the same thing in life,” said Tsitsipas, who will also play mixed doubles with Badosa at this tournament. “So to have a person by your side that you love and can comfortably and mutually and reciprocally talk about tennis in our case, I think it’s a breath of fresh air. In my case, that person knows a lot about tennis and analyses the game pretty well.”
Former runner-up Tsitsipas has been in good form in the build-up to the year’s second Grand Slam, winning the Monte Carlo title and reaching the Barcelona final.
Badosa, a former world No. 2, has endured patchy results while dealing with injuries. Nevertheless, the pair, nicknamed “Tsitsidosa”, has been discussing strategy in Paris.
“We talk a lot about tennis. Our primary goal is to help each other figure certain things out. We talk about things that we can improve. We have a lot of questions for each other,” Tsitsipas added.
“I feel we’re equally as knowledgeable in our craft and hold a lot of understanding of how certain situations should be dealt with. That’s because of the experience we have accumulated.”
Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas first made their relationship official on social media in 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
But it is not all just technical talk, as Tsitsipas and Badosa also share a joke sometimes about their abilities on the court.
“Paula keeps saying all the time, and it annoys me, that she wishes she had my forehand,” he said. “I tell her ‘I’m sorry, but that’s not possible, so you have to find ways around it’.
“And sometimes I think ‘Oh gosh, I wish I had her returns’. She destroys the ball on the returns and it seems so effortless from her side. We try and learn from these things and obviously share a vision of how we proceed with certain things in our sport.” REUTERS
