Tennis News: Paula Badosa and Casper Ruud

Paula Badosa is struggling. Ever since she peaked at No. 2 on the WTA tour in 2022, she has had issues with different injuries. She will play for a few matches and then an ailment will return or she will suffer a new injury and she has to stop playing. In 2023, her final tournament of the year turned out to be Wimbledon. Plus, she hasn't made the finals of any event since the Sydney Classic in January of 2022.

But she is getting support from her boyfriend, Stefanos Tsitsipas. Of course, Tsitsipas has had his own injury concerns over the last year. He had to stop playing at the ATP Finals because of a back problem, for instance. And once a weekly top ten player, he has fallen to No. 11 currently. But even if he is not playing tennis that well, he is at least being a helpful person.

Last week after her withdrawal from Indian Wells, Badosa posted on social media not only that she hopes to be playing consistently again, but that she hopes to be "smiling" while playing. This is extremely bittersweet, of course. Tennis fans do not simply want Paula Badosa on the court so we can watch her participate, we hope she is happy while doing so.

Paula Badosa struggles and Casper Ruud complains

Tistsipas was asked about Badosa's injury issues and how he tries to help her at Indian Wells this week and he said, "The most frustrating part about all of this is that she did play a few matches, and then she didn't feel that well again, so it has been a tricky time for both of us.

"On my end, I'm trying to find the right words and the right things to say. Obviously, when it started in the beginning, you have a lot of faith in it and you're, like, ‘Okay, you just need to stay committed in the process of healing and getting better.’ But after a while, there aren't many things you can say, because you are confused yourself with what's happening with the body."

Speaking of not knowing what is going on, this might be the case for tennis fans who like the now-canceled Netflix docuseries, Break Point. At least, according to Casper Ruud this might be the case. During a press conference at Indian Wells, Ruud implied that Break Point was much more of an attempt at reality TV instead of a true documentary. Netflix filmmakers allegedly wanted to form the narratives instead of exposing what was fact.

Ruud said, "It was too much about - I understand that you should try to get to know the other players too much, but it just demanded too much of my time, because they want you to do this and they want to do this, and everything was a little staged in my eyes."

Read more from Lob and Smash