Mirra Andreeva sees a silver lining to her furious reaction to losing a lead during her latest match at the Madrid Open on Monday.
The Russian ninth seed ousted Anna Bondár 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(5), in a roller-coaster encounter. During the first set, Andreeva broke to lead 6-5 but failed to serve it out and ended up losing the opener. Then in the decider, she raced out to a 5-1 lead before losing five games in a row.
It was during the final set that Andreeva lost her cool. Speaking towards coach Conchita Martinez in the crowd, she said, “I’m not a champion, I’m not a champion. I will lose. I will lose. I choke.” After that statement, she commented, “I don’t want anything,” in what appeared to be her reaction to getting reassurance from her camp. Despite the meltdown, the 18-year-old managed to regroup and seal victory.
“I caught myself being in a pretty bad spot when it was 5-6 in the third set when I lost those five games in a row. It’s weird to say, but I feel like, especially in that moment, it kind of helped me because I was so mad at myself,” Andreeva told The Tennis Channel.
“I was just like, “Well, no. I’m not leaving it (the match) like this.”
“By the end of the third set, I was pretty mad at myself for not being brave enough to close the set earlier because I feel like I cannot make this happen again.
“I really have to be able to close things out when I have an opportunity. Even now I feel a little bit mad at myself, but um I guess that’s very self-critical.”
Fiery outbursts during matches are nothing new for Andreeva. Earlier this year in Indian Wells, she smashed her racket numerous times and then threw it towards the net after losing four consecutive games in the final set to Katerina Siniakova. She was then caught on camera saying “f— you all, f— you all” as she left the court.
Andreeva, who will turn 19 on Wednesday, hopes to give herself an early birthday present by winning her upcoming match against Leylah Fernandez. Fernandez recently reached the quarter-finals in Stuttgart, where she took Elena Rybakina to three sets before losing. In Madrid, she has so far beaten Alexandra Eala, Zeynep Sonmez and Ann Li.
“I would really like to see a little bit less double faults but overall I would say I was still pretty happy with how I served, but that would be a point to try to improve,” Andreeva said ahead of her next match.
“The next one is not to wait for the mistakes. I’d rather miss but go for my shot. I don’t want to wait for her to do something, or to miss or to hit a winner. I just want to do everything myself when I’m playing on the court, that’s what I’m going to try to focus on.”
It is the third year in a row that Andreeva has reached the quarter-finals in Madrid. She is the youngest woman to reach the last eight of the same WTA 1000 or Tier 1 event three consecutive times since Martina Hingis did so at the Miami Open between 1997 and 1999.
