Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall for a conversation between tennis power couple Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa?
After earning a second-round win at Roland Garros Wednesday, Tsitsipas took fans inside those conversations during his press conference, saying they “talk a lot about tennis”.
“Our primary goal is to help each other figure certain things out. 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,” Tsitsipas said. “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’.”
The sentiment goes both ways. Tsitsipas admitted that sometimes he wishes he had Badosa’s return.
“She destroys the ball on the returns, and it seems so effortless from her side,” Tsitsipas said. “We try and learn from these things and obviously share a vision of how we proceed with certain things in our sport.”
Stef strikes again 💪
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He moves through R2 with a 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-4 win over Altmaier 🔥@rolandgarros | #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/qGARGr3QOl
The No. 9 player in the PIF ATP Rankings explained that it helps to have a partner who is also a tennis player.
“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 analyses the game pretty well.”
The Greek added that there are also times when he and Badosa “completely disconnect from tennis” and talk about other things.
“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,” Tsitsipas said. “We know our routines or maybe… our own rhythms obviously before and after a match. Superstitions, let's call it. A superstition, yeah. Our superstitions we get better than any other couple relationship, because tennis comes with it. It's natural.”
Did You Know?
Tsitsipas and Badosa are playing mixed doubles together at Roland Garros.
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