"Things that hurt you" - Paula Badosa struggles with haters on social media
Top Spanish player Paula Badosa spoke about hate on social media and how it is affecting her career in a short documentary for the WTA.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit:
Oct 15, 2022, 07:11 pm
Paula Badosa is currently fourth in the WTA ranking. Since the native New Yorker made her breakthrough last year by winning the WTA Tour 1000 event in Indian Wells, she has become an integral part of the international tennis headlines, even if the really big successes came especially in the second half of the current season are still missing.
Most recently, the 24-year-old had two more or less clear opening defeats in Tokyo and Ostrava, this week at the 500 event in San Diego, California, at least a quarter-final participation looked out - but there it was against the American Dianne Collins in two passes terminus. Of course, in phases with less success, the critics are quickly on the spot. It gets particularly bad, however, when criticism turns into hate. A phenomenon of our time, thanks to social media.
learning process to live with it
She feels bad talking about it because otherwise she feels very privileged to be where she is now. But at the same time it is difficult for her. "People know me now, they expect me to win every game, every time." It's a learning process to live with because even if she has a lot of fans, the first thing she thinks about after a lost game is the critics.
"I can't understand how other people can hate me when they don't even know me. It's hard to understand people who don't have a problem judging and criticizing you." If you lose a match, you see the posts on social media - and that's the worst. "Everyone has their own opinion and it's generally not a good one. You read a lot of things that you don't like and that hurt you."