World No. 3 Paula Badosa says it’s a positive competitive spirit between her and Iga Swiatek as the two push each other to be better and work harder. Swiatek broke into the scene in 2020, when she became a Grand Slam champion and reached the No.
4 ranking. It took a bit longer for Badosa to break through as she enjoyed a career-best year in 2021. Last year, Badosa won the Indian Wells Masters in October, made her WTA Finals debut and broke into the top-10 for the first time in her career.
Badosa has improving her ranking ever since winning Indian Wells and now she is enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 3. On the other side, Swiatek is the new world No. 1. “We push each other a lot and she’s nice. In my practice, if I have to go be with bad vibes or bad energy, I wouldn’t like it.
She makes everything very easy,” Badosa said of Swiatek, per WTA Insider. “I mean, for me, she’s No.1 in the world, so I cannot ask for a better partner to practice.”
Badosa, Swiatek set to play Stuttgart
Badosa kicked off her clay season two weeks ago in Charleston, where she reached the quarterfinal before losing to Belinda Bencic.
Badosa was scheduled to play the Billie Jean King Cup last week but she pulled out of the Spain and Netherlands tie. “It is not an easy decision, who knows me knows how complicated it is for me not to be in a competition and I was especially looking forward to this one, but advised by my medical team and due to physical and medical problems with which I have had to compete in recent weeks, I will be out of the call for the BJK Cup,” Badosa announced last week.
This week, Badosa and Swiatek are the two top-seeded players in the Stuttgart draw. Badosa is playing her second clay tournament of the year, while Swiatek is kicking off her clay season.