Paula Badosa on her boyfriend Juan Betancourt and being judged as a tennis player through her relationship
Paula Badosa has opened up about getting judged as a tennis player through the lens of her relationship with her boyfriend Juan Betancourt.
Badosa has been dating Betancourt, an actor, model, and fashion icon, for the last few years. The pair first announced their relationship on Instagram in 2021.
Since they began dating the Cuban has been Badosa's travel companion as she competes in tournaments across the world. During an on-court interview last year, the Spaniard spoke about "waiting" to get engaged in a "year or so", though she later clarified that she was joking.
When asked if it was difficult for her to go public with her relationship, Badosa stated that it's not an easy move for female athletes as they then tend to get judged for their sporting achievements (or disappointments) through their personal lives.
"More [difficult] for me. It is always more difficult for being an athlete woman, because they are going to judge you: if you win or lose it is because of your relationship," she said in an interview with glamour.es.
"But you have to be a little above those comments and I carry it normally," she added. "I am an athlete, but I am a person. Just like my partner, so we take it easy. I think that's how things work out best."
Motherhood has ceased to be taboo in elite sport, says Paula Badosa
In recent years, there have been several WTA stars who have embraced motherhood and juggled it with their playing career.
Serena Williams won an Australian Open title while she was pregnant, before celebrating her victory in Auckland, her first WTA title since maternity leave, with her daughter Olympia in her arms.
Kim Clijsters, a mother to three children, celebrated her 2009 and 2010 US Open triumphs with her eldest child in tow. Kateryna Bondarenko has two daughters and returned from her second maternity leave last year.
There are several mothers who are active on the WTA tour currently, like Victoria Azarenka, Tatjana Maria, and Taylor Townsend, to name a few.
Spanish tennis star Paula Badosa believes that motherhood has ceased to be taboo in elite sport. She stated that it was very inspiring to watch players return to dominating the sport not long after becoming a mother.
"I think so [that motherhood has ceased to be taboo in elite sport]. This past year there have been many tennis players who have become mothers. It is something very beautiful. It is difficult to combine being an athlete, but they have succeeded," she said.
"I think that now it is seen much better thanks to people like Ana Peleteiro, for example," she added. "It is very inspiring to see how tennis players who have just become mothers in two months are at their best. That all these things look normal is something very cool."