The bubbly, big hitter Aryna Sabalenka broke her serious game face for a moment on the Grandstand court earlier this week. After smashing a crosscourt shot deep, the No. 2 seed bent her knee as in a slight curtsy, and with a cheeky wink, blew a kiss across the court.
The receiver of the smooch was the No. 29 seed, Paula Badosa of Spain, who couldn’t do anything else but smile at the silliness Sabalenka injected into their hitting session.
That day, they were practice partners. Every match on the tour, they are opponents. But everyday for the last few years, they’ve been something greater: best friends.
For a fortnight every summer, the sprawling grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center brings into focus the best tennis and brightest players on the biggest stage in the world at the US Open.
In the shadow of the on-court action, Badosa and 2023 US Open finalist Sabalenka, the self-proclaimed “soulmates,” have shone a spotlight on the sisterhood built outside the baselines.
Life on tour as a tennis professional can be lonely and oftentimes isolating. Between the travel, constant training, buoying wins and devastating losses, there seems to be little time off the court--and even less for socializing.
When looking for companionship, players don’t first raise a friendly hand to their fellow players on tour. Between steely glances across the locker room to the often acrimonious actions against one another on court, friendships aren’t always formed among perceived foes.
"It is very important to have friends on the circuit, so when you find someone who you feel is your soulmate, it is the best thing that can happen to you.”
But that isn’t the case for Badosa, a former world No. 2, and Sabalenka, the current No. 2. The pair met a few years ago at an exhibition match, and have quickly found camaraderie among the competition with one another, and are each other’s traveling confidants across the world. The tandem has been affectionately dubbed “Sabadosa” by fans.
"I love Paula [Badosa] very much,” Sabalenka said at a press conference at Stuttgart in April. “We have been friends for three or four years. She is an incredible person. It is very important to have friends on the circuit, so when you find someone who you feel is your soulmate, it is the best thing that can happen to you.”
It's a connection that only two people who live a nontraditional lifestyle, in a nontraditional career, chasing major Grand Slam dreams, could ever share.
“We realized that we were very, we had very similar personalities and we get along very well, and that we’re both very, very competitive. But at the same time, we know how to separate things, you know,” Badosa said of Sabalenka on the Tennis Channel’s Inside-In podcast in March.
Balancing the competition with the camaraderie has been a regular practice since the two first bonded. As of 2024, "Sabadosa" has sparred a total of seven times. Badosa battled from a set down in Cincinnati in 2021 to kick Sabalenka out of the tournament in their Round of 32 meeting. Badosa managed to once again trump Sabalenka later that year in the WTA Finals. But since 2021, Sabalenka has taken the pair’s last five meetings.
"It's tough to play your best friend,” Sabalenka said after her latest win over the Spaniard in Stuttgart. “We're good to separate things. During the match, we're opponents and I'm trying not to watch too much of the other side, focus on myself, and bring my best game."
Competition aside, the pair offer a friendly face for one another in yet another foreign city, and manage to interweave mirth into their serious match preparations. Social media serves as another playground for the two, with regular posts with one another, and of course, the official dedicated bestie birthday post each year.
In Queens this week, "Sabadosa" has been pictured doing what best friends do best: wearing matching outfits, practicing together and of course, poking fun at one another.
“Just to have a friend, that's really awesome."
Badosa and Sabalenka have found themselves making deep runs at this year's Open, and both are into the Round of 16. The duo was both drawn in the bottom half of the draw, and should they both continue to power on in Flushing Meadows, the two could possibly meet for a "Sabadosa" semifinal smash. That would serve Flushing’s fans incredible tennis, and give the friendly faces across the net a new memory in their soulmate slideshow.
“It's just an amazing thing, you know, to find someone so similar to you and having the same kind of mindset, same thoughts on different topics and just be able to talk to someone and to have fun with someone,” Sabalenka said of Badosa after her second-round win this week. “Just to have a friend, that's really awesome.”
