By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa are soul survivors.
Now, the tennis power couple is set to make mix magic together at Roland Garros.
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Former French Open finalist Tsitsipas and former Indian Wells champion Badosa, who rekindled their romance after a brief 23-day split, accepted a wild card into the Roland Garros mixed doubles.
The stars were the only non-French teams awarded a mixed doubles wild card.
Tsitsipas defeated Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 today to reach the Roland Garros singles third round for the sixth straight year.
The 25-year-old Greek, who calls his relationship with Badosa a “soul interaction”, said afterward the couple’s connection is strong because of mutual passion and shared profession.
“I feel if there are things I don't quite get as much or feel like I'm as well in touch with regarding my job, I can always reach out to my partner who has spent the same amount of time that I have spent on the court trying to figure out the game, which is a small benefit to my life, I feel like,” Tsitsipas said. “We both share the same passion and we both do the same thing in life.
“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 to have a person like that that you can trust. I think in my case that person knows a lot about tennis and analyzes the game pretty well.”
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Three-time Monte-Carlo champion Tsitsipas said Badosa's compassion and understanding of the pressures he faces as a top pro have helped deepen their relationship.
To that end, sometimes they talk tactics and technique and other times the couple completely disconnects from the sport.
“Outside of it, we still have times where we completely disconnect from tennis and we focus on our other hobbies that we find interest in,” Tsitsipas said. “It's a great relationship, because we can combine from both worlds and we can, I feel like, understand each other's lives so much better than any other type of relationship because we know the struggles of it, we know our routines or maybe some of our, how can you say it, when you get into a certain routine.”
When it comes to tennis, the pair will share the court in mixed doubles and already share a mutual support system.
Tsitsipas calls Badosa “my favorite player” and Badosa has put her boyfriend’s forehand on her wish list.
“Well, me and my partner, we talk a lot about tennis. Our primary goal is to help each other figure certain things out,” Tsitsipas said. “We have a lot of questions for each other. I feel like we're equally as knowledgeable in our craft and hold a lot of understanding of how certain situations shall be dealt with. That's because of experience that we have accumulated over the years.
“We talk about equipment. We talk about things that we can improve. Paula keeps saying all the time, and it annoys me, that she wishes she had my forehand. I tell her I'm sorry, but that's not possible so you have to find ways around it (smiling).
"Sometimes I also think, oh, gosh, I wish I had her returns. She destroys the ball on the returns, and it seems so effortless from her side. You know, we try and learn from these things and obviously share a vision of how we proceed.”
Photo credit: Paula Badosa Instagram