"Everyone deals with stress differently" - Kim Clijsters voices her feelings on Aryna Sabalenka & Paula Badosa being 'best friends' despite rivalry

Kim Clijsters recently shared her thoughts on the friendship between Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa, despite their competitive rivalry on the WTA Tour . The two players have faced each other eight times on the tour, with Sabalenka emerging victorious in six of those matches.

Last year, Sabalenka and Badosa faced each other three times on the tour and all the three matches were won by the World No.1. They most recently faced each other in the semifinals of the 2025 Australian Open, where Sabalenka triumphed with a score of 6-4, 6-2.

Despite the competitive nature of their matches, Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa's friendship remains strong as evident through their social media interactions and their comments in press conferences.

A heartwarming anecdote highlighting their bond occurred after the conclusion Australian Open, where Aryna Sabalenka gifted Badosa an expensive bracelet, as an apology gift for defeating her in the semifinals and preventing her from winning her maiden Grand Slam title.

Recently, while speaking on the 'Served with Andy Roddick' podcast, Kim Clijsters expressed her admiration for Sabalenka and Badosa's friendship and then acknowledged that she personally struggled to form such close relationships with opponents due to the competitive nature of the sport.

“I mean it's best friends but then I could never have that kind of relationship with an opponent just because, like, if my friend would be on tour with me, we would be together all the time, we would meet up for dinner all the time. In tennis there's still a little bit of a separation where I feel like they all have their team, their boyfriends, so there's a little bit of a separation," Clijsters said [46:14].

Clijsters mentioned that she believes that nowadays social media plays a huge role in fostering closer connections among players, contrasting it with the limited interactions she experienced during her playing days.

“I do think in the last few years like a lot of players are a lot closer than what they were back in the day. I think maybe social media has something to do with it . We didn't know much about you know my opponent's private lives back in the day cause it just wasn't out there. You didn't know a lot of personal things, you didn't know where they went on vacation or who they were dating. Now you see it all out there on social media and it's different but I think it's great," she continued [46:43].

Kim Clijsters stated that there are benefits of female players supporting each other on tour but also pointed out the complexities of maintaining friendships while competing against one another.

“I think it's great for women to be close and to have that connection on tour and to vent to one another but then at the same time it has to be weird to then compete against each other as well. Everybody's so different and everybody deals with the stress and the pressure differently. We're all together but it's also very individual too," Kim Clijsters added [47:24].

Aryna Sabalenka has had a successful start to her 2025 season, claiming the title at the Brisbane International and then finishing as the runner-up at the Australian Open.

On the other hand, Paula Badosa's best results this season have been in the doubles event at the Brisbane International, where she reached the quarterfinals alongside Ons Jabeur, and in the singles event at the Australian Open, where she made it to the semifinals before falling to Aryna Sabalenka.

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Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa recently competed at Qatar Open 2025

Aryna Sabalenka (L) & Paula Badosa (R) [Image Source: Getty Images]

Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa recently competed at the 2025 Qatar Open. Sabalenka was making her fourth appearance at the tournament, having previously participated in 2020, 2021, and 2022. She won the title in 2020 by defeating Petra Kvitova in the final and reached the quarterfinals in 2022, before falling to eventual champion Iga Swiatek.

This year, Sabalenka was the top seed at the WTA 1000 hard court tournament in Doha and began her campaign in the second round after receiving a first-round bye. The World No.1's journey in the tournament was a short one as she lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(5) in her opening match.

On the other hand, Badosa was seeded ninth at the Qatar Open. She was initially scheduled to play against Katerina Siniakova in the first round but the Czech withdrew from the tournament due to a left hamstring injury. Badosa then went on to play against lucky loser Renata Zarazua and secured a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win.

Badosa's tournament run ended in the second round with a 4-6, 3-6 loss to Amanda Anisimova.