Aryna Sabalenka couldn’t contain her excitement when her best friend Paula Badosa dropped the news: she had finally ended her relationship with Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The world No. 1 Belarusian admitted she reacted like the ultimate hype woman, sending Badosa a two-minute voice note filled with laughter and screams of “Yes, girl! You made it!”
Sabalenka shared the hilarious moment in a candid interview with Ben Rothenberg’s Bounces podcast, revealing just how thrilled she was for her close friend’s fresh start.
The pair’s two-year romance reportedly ended last year shortly after both players suffered early exits at Wimbledon. While Badosa stayed silent for months, she finally opened up this week at the Berlin tournament — and didn’t hold back.
Badosa labels Tsitsipas a “toxic ex”
The Spanish star bluntly described the Greek player as a “toxic ex-boyfriend,” explaining why a clean breakup was impossible.
“You can have a great relationship with an ex because they’re normal people… But when it’s not like that… I don’t need to explain any further,” Badosa said. “You can see every day that the other person makes everything harder.”
She even encouraged the media to go full throttle with the headlines, joking: “Now I want to see tomorrow’s headlines: ‘Paula attacks Tsitsipas’… Well, he deserves it!”
The strong comments have already sent tennis Twitter into overdrive, with fans divided between supporting Badosa’s honesty and defending Tsitsipas.
Sabalenka and Badosa’s friendship has grown increasingly close in recent years, with both players frequently calling each other best friends. Their bond clearly runs deep — enough for Sabalenka to celebrate the breakup like a personal victory.
As the tennis world heads toward the grass-court season, this very public split and the reactions surrounding it are likely to keep tongues wagging long after the points are played.
