Paula Badosa and Karolina Muchova were subjected to a furious rant by one of their opponents after withdrawing from the China Open doubles, and the Spaniard has responded to the criticism.
Fans were excited when Badosa teamed up with Muchova. The pair are among the most watchable players in the game, especially Muchova, who is known for her volleys, drop shots, and slices.
They made a winning start in the opening round by easily defeating Irina Khromacheva and Anna Danilina. Badosa and Muchova were scheduled to face Veronika Kudermetova and Chan Hao-Ching in the following round.
However, the high-profile pair withdrew from the match, giving their opponents a walkover. It seemed like this was done to prioritize their singles campaigns in Beijing over the doubles.
Badosa, who will Team Spain at the Billie Jean King Cup, produced her best display in over two years to thrash the US Open runner-up Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-0 and reach the quarterfinal of the singles at the China Open.
Muchova put her US Open semifinal loss from 6-1, 2-0 up against Pegula behind her by also playing well in the singles in the Chinese capital. A comfortable victory against Cristina Bucsa set up a blockbuster matchup with Aryna Sabalenka.
One of the players defeated by Badosa and Muchova was unhappy to see the pair thriving in singles after withdrawing from doubles. Khromacheva slammed both women in an angry social media post.
She argued that it was unfair to players signing in after losing in an earlier round and to those defeated by the singles players that they routinely withdraw from the doubles after their first match.
Badosa’s track record this year might indicate that Kromacheva’s annoyance is justified. The Spaniard has withdrawn after winning her first match in all four of her doubles appearances in 2024, establishing a clear pattern.
But the former world No. 2 does not believe this criticism is fair. She posted about the issue in Spanish on social media, saying that others judge a situation without understanding all the facts.
“People judge without fully understanding anything. It’s brutal.”
Although Badosa’s withdrawal before the second round at doubles tournaments has been a pattern this year, an account on X (formerly Twitter) shared a post that indicated a genuine physical issue may have been behind her and Muchova’s withdrawal.
An image uploaded by the account on X showed that Muchova had a right wrist injury. The Czech was sidelined for nine months until June due to a problem with her right wrist that required surgery.
Some fans will point out that Muchova continued to play in the singles and argue that shows her wrist injury is not overly severe and that she and Badosa should have played their next doubles match out of respect to the rest of the draw.
However, Muchova’s caution after such an extended period out because of her right wrist is entirely understandable. She may have felt some stiffness in that area and decided to take a day off to avoid any possibility of a recurrence of that injury.