Tennis News: Paula Badosa, Holger Rune, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev

Paula Badosa is one of the popular players among tennis fans. She is funny, smart, a good player, and in a relationship with the also-popular Stefanos Tsitsipas. But Badosa has not been able to stay healthy over most of the last year. She suffered another setback this week during her second round match at the Thailand Open and she was forced to retire.

Badosa dealt with a lower back injury for most of 2023 and that seems to be what bothered her in Thailand as well. Badosa wasn't able to play after losing in the round of 64 at Wimbledon last July, but she did manage to play at the Adelaide International to begin 2024. She lost in the first round, however.

She also played at the Australian Open and managed to win two matches before falling to Amanda Anisimova in the third round. Before retiring at the Thailand Open, Badosa was trailing 2-6 4-3 but her opponent, Diana Shnaider, had won the last two games and looked to be bouncing back after a short dip in form. Hopefully, Badosa simply aggravated her back injury instead of suffering a worse issue. There is no timetable on when she will return or her next tournament.

Paula Badosa suffers setback and Holger Rune keeps changing coaches

Holger Rune is far too young to be going through so many coaches but Rune has, in fact, changed coaches often and has now let go of Severin Luthi. Luthi was only hired on December 20, 2023, and formed a coaching duo with Boris Becker. One might wonder, if that one has watched the Netflix docuseries Break Point, if much of the coaching changes have to do with input from Rune's mother. She seems to be in control of Rune's young career.

TV2 in Denmark reported that Luthi was unable to be at all the tournaments that Rune is scheduled to play in 2024 so that might be a valid reason to remove Luthi. But Rune's schedule also seems as if it would have been a topic in the discussions Rune and Luthi had during the hiring process. Luthi knows what he is doing as a coach, however, as he worked with Roger Federer for 15 years.

Dubai Open early entry list

The Dubai Open will take place from February 26 through March 2. The players involved in the tournament are already being announced, though, and it is a good group of players. The list includes ATP No. 3 Daniil Medvedev and No. 5 Andrey Rublev. Even if no other players were involved, Medvedev and Rublev would make the tournament entertaining.

Hubert Hurkacz is also expected to play. So is Andy Murray. While Murray making a deep run in the event would be great, he seems closer to retirement than winning a title. One can dream, however.

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