Paula Badosa planned a fake birthday for Aryna Sabalenka, who was visibly amused by a restaurant’s employees who put the plan into action. There was a cake, there were balloons… well, everything for cozy little fake birthday.
No way Badosa planned a fake birthday in a restaurant to Sabalenka lmao šš pic.twitter.com/7HXmNFvFzR
ā LorenaPopa šµļøāāļøš¾ (@popalorena) October 18, 2022
Actually, Sabalenka was born on May 5, 1998.
Badosa on her battle with anxiety
Although Paula Badosa shows her funny side in organizing the fake birthday for Badosa, she acknowledges that the great amount of pressure and expectation caused her to feel uncomfortable and depressed early in her career.
“They were like, I’m the next Maria Sharapova. I was very young and I wasn’t prepared to listen to all that. I was super big, a lot of expectations and pressure.
People watching me wherever I play and expecting me to win every match was too much for me. I remember, a few years I had depression and a lot of anxiety. I was dealing with a lot of mental health issues. My head wasn’t prepared to listen to all those things and compete,” Badosa said in a conversation with the WTA titled “The Real Me.”
Badosa added:
“I wasn’t, maybe, even mature enough to know how to deal with all those emotions in that moment. I struggled a lot for a few years, maybe 2-3 years it was very tough for me.
I wasn’t even advancing in the rankings and I was losing a lot. It was very tough for me to have a routine every day because I was feeling very bad and I was struggling with injuries as well. When you have mental issues, even your body is not feeling well.
I remember even normal things in life were very tough for me. The first thing you want to do when you’re back home is go out with friends or go to the cinema or do other things, go shopping. I was just staying at home alone, struggling, and dealing with myself, being very negative.
I didn’t see a way to get out of it.”