The breakup that doesn't end: Badosa shoots at Tsitsipas and he doesn't bite his tongue

BarcelonaExactly one year ago, in July 2025, tennis player Paula Badosa and her then-boyfriend, also tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas, broke up for good. And it's worth emphasizing the latter because their love story had always been marked by ups and downs. By highs and lows that sooner or later they always managed to resolve, until last summer, when the decision was firm. The magazine ¡Hola!, to which they had granted an unprecedented report to talk about their love story in October 2024, confirmed the breakup, citing sources close to the couple and in which the media had full informational confidence.

"The breakup has just happened. Both have fallen in the first round in London and everything has come together for them," explained an anonymous source to the magazine, adding that both “were having a bad professional streak, with injuries" that had "affected the relationship.” That difficult situation on a personal and professional level, explained ¡Hola!, had taken its toll on the relationship to the point of not being able to save it. "They are not well, as is logical. It's normal in any couple that breaks up. They had started the year very well and their dream has been shattered. [...] It is a healthy breakup and there have been no third parties or family influences, as is beginning to be said," those close sources defended.

There were precedents

The truth is that this final breakup was not entirely a surprise to tennis fans who followed their unique relationship from the beginning. Having become a media couple in this sport, like a sort of clay-court Brangelina, they had already broken up at the beginning of May 2024. They deleted photos of themselves together that they had posted on social media and unfollowed each other, which obviously set off all alarms and forced the protagonists of that very public love story to give explanations. She published a letter on Instagram that, in retrospect, already suggested that things had not entirely ended: "We have shared a path full of love and learning, and now, as friends with great respect, we have decided to go our separate ways. [...] These past few days have not been easy emotionally, but I am a strong person, so I am trying to cope with all of this as best as I can. It reminds me a lot of Maria and Grigor's story [referring to tennis players Grigor Dimitrov and Maria Sharapova]. You are with the right person, but perhaps at the wrong time."

Obviously, those tender words must have served to smooth over some roughness in her ex's heart, and at the end of that same month, the two tennis players were seen together again. It was then he who confirmed the reconciliation. He did so to the Greek media outlet SDNA and with great honesty. "We are together. I will explain why some people invent different stories about us. Paula did nothing wrong, nor did I do anything wrong. [...] It was difficult for us to be apart. I would say that I didn't handle it very well either because I felt a lot of pressure from the tournaments, from my job. It seemed like a mountain to combine this life with my personal life, and I made the decision to take a break. After two or three weeks, I realized that she is a person who has given me a lot of support, and when she tried to talk to me about continuing to get to know each other, I felt how intense the love we have for each other is," expressed Tsitsipas.

'Bonus track'

That reconciliation, the kind that excites the general public, lasted for one more year, until last summer, when they preferred not to give more oxygen to a relationship that had been very public due to the beautiful freedom with which they had loved each other. A freedom that added a little more pressure to the attention they already received normally but which did not change the terms at all, since if they had done everything possible to hide it, the pressure would have been the same and the press would have been equally interested in how these two young, beautiful, and successful sports icons were doing.

After all this sentimental journey, where a certain fair-play had always prevailed, the words of the tennis player from Begur were very surprising, in which she publicly resurrected a relationship that was considered dead in the media. A little over two weeks ago, she said in a press conference after defeating Coco Gauff in Berlin words that did not go unnoticed at all. "I have been through many breakups in my life. I accept them and I understand that things are as they are. But when there are toxic situations around, everything becomes much more complicated than a normal breakup," explained the athlete at the post-match press conference. Aware of the impact her words would have, she ended the intervention by adding: "Surely tomorrow I will read in headlines that Badosa attacks Tsitsipas... Well, she deserves it!".

The cherry

When many thought that it had been a kind of final tantrum, it turned out that the tennis player had not finished yet and last week she spoke about it again to slightly qualify her words. "I don't want to give any more explanations. Everything falls into place by itself and I simply wanted to explain as a person and as a woman that we go through situations we don't like and that there were more things behind it than just injuries. I have suffered for a year along with my environment, and seeing myself well gave me the strength to explain everything that had happened. I don't want to mention him anymore and I want to turn the page", have been her last words on the matter. For now...

Finally, after this resurgence of resentment – or of necessary exorcism...– the Greek has not remained silent and has been more conciliatory than could have been foreseen. "Everyone has their own way of seeing things, but I don't feel any resentment towards anyone. I have no reason to hate anyone. My parents instilled values in me and I try to live according to those values", said the tennis player, who took the opportunity to wish Badosa "the best in her career and also in life". "I have always greatly admired both her tennis and her personality on the court. I believe she still has a lot to offer", said the Greek before adding: "I know she has gone through very difficult stages, especially due to the severity of the injury she suffered. It is not easy to deal with such a situation when you compete at the highest level constantly. I think she is a great person and I sincerely hope that we can maintain a cordial relationship within the circuit".

Tsitsipas says that what he needs now is "peace and quiet". Especially, because he has also broken with his father for the second time as a coach, something he already did once and which now seems to have been done definitively. Will this double break-up by the tennis player be the definitive one in both cases, or will we publish another extra chapter of this story of ups and downs of him and Badosa? I only hope that if we have to extend this soap opera, it will be to end with a wedding of the two tennis players with the father as godfather and Tommy Paul among the guests. If he is so handsome sweaty and running on the courts, I don't want to think about the joy he must be in a wedding suit...