One of a handful of young stars to shine at the Grand Slam, American ace Michelsen beat Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Badosa and Coco Gauff exchanged messages in Australia, with the latter among the former’s victims during her superb semi-final venture.

The Spaniard overcame Gauff expertly in their Australian Open quarter-final clash, with Badosa eventually falling to WTA number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals.

Stefanos Tsitsipas helped Paula Badosa get out of her comfort zone at Australian Open

It represented Badosa’s best-ever Grand Slam run, with her boyfriend Tsitsipas now sharing behind-the-scenes details of her tournament.

“Her success gives me a lot of motivation,” said the Greek star, as quoted by the ATP Tour website. “It was really impressive and deserved.

“With her run I thought, ‘If she can do it, why can’t I?’ That’s how I look at it. I learned a lot from this process of how to get to a Grand Slam semi-final.

READ MORE: Aryna Sabalenka shares the deal she made with Paula Badosa ‘a long time ago’ ahead of their Australian Open semi-final

“I felt privileged that I could give her some small advice to help her en route to the semi-finals. She gave me the freedom to give some feedback and tips.

“Through my advice to her, I also learned things about myself in terms of tennis and how I see the court and how I approach my own game. It pushes me on.

“We had serious conversations during her run. I was being strict with her as I didn’t want to be too soft. Because in this sort of circumstance, she’s learned to play her own way.

“But I feel there’s so much potential in her that she can extract from her game and use that to spread even more of her tennis identity better inside the court.

“I feel like there were certain times in the past where she was underplaying. She just didn’t realise it because she was stuck in her comfort zone.

“But what I’m trying to help her do is get her out of her comfort zone and make her more dangerous on the court.

“It was inspiring to me to see her execute because it teaches me how to do things when I am in that position.

“I feel she has a lot of respect for what I have to say. I’m really happy I have a relationship like this where I can exchange ideas and operate on a different scale than I usually operate at.”

What is Stefanos Tsitsipas’s Grand Slam history after Australian Open shock?

Tsitsipas could certainly do with taking advice and inspiration from Badosa, having failed to reach his full potential in recent times.

A former ATP number three, the 26-year-old now occupies 13th place in the rankings, having been the 11th seed at the Australian Open, exactly like Badosa.

READ MORE: Paula Badosa gives her verdict on Stefanos Tsitsipas’s performance against Francisco Cerundolo at the Paris Masters

He does, however, boast a better history at such events, with Tsitsipas having reached two Grand Slam finals in his career so far.

Unfortunately, however, he lost both, with Novak Djokovic beating him at the 2021 French Open and the 2023 Australian Open.

He will now be aiming to bounce back from his latest setback as soon as possible, while Badosa will be looking for further success as she takes on the Abu Dhabi Open as the second seed.

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