Paula Badosa enjoyed a deep run in the recently concluded China Open 2024. The Spaniard reached the semi-final of the tournament before losing in three sets to eventual winner Coco Gauff. Despite her promising run, she garnered a lot of negative attention after a photo of her made the rounds on social media. Some fans were not pleased with what they saw in it.
It is not the first time that the Spanish player has attracted unwanted attention for her actions. Her partner and Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas has also been involved in some of them. Let’s have a detailed look at the reasons why Badosa has been in the news for negative reasons in the last year:
Badosa’s China Open controversy
Post her exit from the China Open 2024, Badosa came under fire for her controversial picture. Pol Toledo, Badosa’s trainer, shared the now-deleted image of the player on social media, showing the Spaniard holding chopsticks to her eyelids.
This caused outrage among tennis fans who believed it was a racist action and felt that Badosa attempted to mock Asian people. Soon, the picture was deleted, and a clarification was also issued in this matter. In her statement, Paula revealed that she was just having fun with her face and wrinkles, and it wasn’t an attempt to mock anyone.
“Oh no, please don’t get it that way. Never thought it would get interpreted this way. We weren’t even imitating Asian people. I was playing around with my face and wrinkles. I love Asia, one of my favorite places, and have plenty of Asian friends. They are the kindest,” she said.
yeah… not cool https://t.co/IDBtxgkg1c pic.twitter.com/hynzImuLi4
— h3/4p (@3quarterprofile) October 6, 2024
Badosa-Tsitsipas gym video
Earlier during the US Open, the couple’s video from their gym session together gained a lot of traction after Tennis TV posted it on Twitter. The video showed the couple holding hands and conversing while stretching their legs. However, this wasn’t taken well by the public, and some people felt it was too ‘cringe’. Some even recommended that the couple should keep such ‘private moments’ to themselves instead of putting them out for everybody to see.
Badosa’s side-eye to Tsitsipas’ father
During the 2023 Wimbledon, Tsitsipas was in the middle of a tough battle against two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray. When the Greek was struggling to get back in the game, his father Apostolos Tsitsipas, who was also his coach at that time, happened to glance at his back, where Badosa was sitting in the Greek player’s box. Apostolos quickly turned back, but the Spaniard gave him a side eye and continued to glare at him for a few seconds. The stare gave the impression that she wasn’t impressed by him.
Badosa’s ‘romantic’ dream with Tsitsipas
After her first-round win at Wimbledon last year, Baodsa got into a candid conversation with Tennis TV where she was asked how her dating phase with Tsitsipas began. Paula revealed that she had a ‘romantic dream’ of Tsitsipas after watching him play the Australian Open 2023 final against Novak Djokovic.
“I never dream about tennis players, but I dreamt about him that night, that we were both winning Australian Open. Then it was like we were having a very romantic moment, but I’m not going to explain. I’m just going to leave it there,” said Paula while laughing.
Badosa’s comment on gender equality in tennis
While interacting with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Badosa discussed the concept of equal pay. She commented that the difference in pay between men and women didn’t bother her, as she feels that players are what they generate, irrespective of their gender. She also added that in tennis, compared to other sports, players are paid much more equally.
“In my sport, in fact, it is much more equal than in others, and it doesn’t bother me that if the best tennis players generate more, they earn it in proportion,” Badosa told the Spanish daily.
Her comment was perceived as misogynistic, and she was slammed by fans for it.
