Paula Badosa WITHDRAWS from her Wimbledon match 12 hours after watching boyfriend Stefano’s Tsitsipa’s fight with Andy Murray late at night, as back injury forced her to pull out
Paula Badosa has withdrawn from her second-round match against Marta Kostyuk at Wimbledon.
It comes as she was pictured late last night on Center Court watching her boyfriend Stefano’s Tsitsipa’s fight against Andy Murray.
The 25-year-old retired in the second set of the match as an injury left him 6-2, 1-0 behind the Ukrainian.
Badosa had been battling a back injury in recent months and had raced to be fit in time for Wimbledon, with her final appearance on court coming in May, where she reached the quarterfinals of the Inernazionali BNL D’Italia in Rome.
The Spaniard, who committed 20 unforced errors in the game and seemed a bit uneasy on court 18.
She also plays in mixed doubles with Tsitsipas, but that now seems to be in jeopardy after her withdrawal.
The clash between Tsitsipas and Murray was abandoned at about 10:40 last night and looked to go the distance, with Murray recovering from a set down to win a second set tiebreak to claim the third 7- 6 (7-3), 6-7 (7-2), 6-4.
Badosa was caught on Center Court giving the Greek tennis player’s coach and father, Apostolos, a sideways eye during the titanic battle that resumes today.
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The Scot’s comeback was admirable, with the Spaniard glaring at her boyfriend’s coach and appearing less than impressed with the 55-year-old.
Badosa already made headlines this week after she revealed at a press conference that she had a sex dream about her boyfriend in a bizarre overshare.
“Yeah, well, I got injured in Australia. I watched his match, the final. Of course I was jet lagged because I was in Spain. I decided to watch that match,” she said.
‘Surprising, because I never dream about tennis players, but I dreamed about him that night, that we both won the Australian Open. Then it was like we had a very romantic moment, but I’m not going to explain.
“I’ll leave it at that,” she added with a laugh.
The pair have been publicly dating since the French Open earlier this year, with Badosa notably going to watch Tsitsipas at the tournament as she recovers from an injury.
The world No. 5 would advance to the quarterfinals of the men’s singles but was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz, who is one of the favorites to win at Wimbledon this week and will face Alexandre Muller later today.
However, it was a rocky start for Badosa, who was broken by Kostyuk in the opening match, but immediately hit back and broke her opponent in the next exchange.
She would lose her serve again in the third game, this time to love, with Kostyuk again pushing to go 4-1 within five games.
She made two saves in the seventh to keep it 5-2, but couldn’t resist the advance of the Ukrainian who served out the last game and won the opening set 6-2.
Upon returning to the field after the break, Badosa would again lose on her own serve and play one game before unfortunately having to retire from the game.
Badosa and Tsitsipas will face Jessica Pegula and Austin Krajicek in the opening round of the mixed doubles tournament.
More to follow…