Andreeva out after being docked point for racquet throw
Russian 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva’s Wimbledon run ended in controversy after she was docked a point for throwing her racquet.
The qualifier, who had already been warned for hurling her racquet after losing the second set, received a point penalty that gave Madison Keys match point in their fourth-round encounter.
Andreeva saved that point but went on to lose 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.
“I didn’t throw the racquet, I slid,” she protested to the umpire.
She did not shake hands with umpire Louise Azemar Engzell as she left court two in a hurry having previously enthralled fans with her brilliant displays on the big stage.
She told a news conference the official had made the wrong decision on the second warning, which came at deuce at 5-2 in the third set after she ran to retrieve a deep ball to her right and appeared to lose her footing.
She touched the grass with her left hand before her right arm came over the top and the racquet hit the ground with force.
It earned her a second warning and an automatic point penalty, which gave her American opponent match point.
The Russian walked over to the umpire’s chair to plead her case, saying: “Do you understand what you are doing? I didn’t throw the racquet. I slid. It’s the wrong decision. I slid and then I fell.”
But the decision stood and Andreeva could not exit the court fast enough, giving a quick handshake to Keys before heading straight off.
“For me, it’s a controversial point,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t have any intention to throw the racquet. I slid. Honestly, I thought that I will fall forward.
“Maybe it did look like I threw the racquet. I don’t know. I didn’t see any videos yet.”
But she said she had “deserved” the first warning, which she got after letting slip a 4-1 lead in the second set to lose it in a tie-break as 25th seed Keys tightened up on her errors.
“I threw the racquet, and it’s grass,” she said. “I was a bit frustrated.”
Andreeva ‘not only one struggling’ with emotions
Last month, Andreeva received a code violation in her French Open third-round loss to Coco Gauff when she thumped a ball into the crowd and it hit a spectator.
Andreeva acknowledged at the time it had been a “really stupid move” by her as it could have resulted in a default if it had been deemed by the umpire to be more serious.
In a previous match here, Andreeva hit her leg out of frustration repeatedly and at times against Keys she also looked emotional while sitting in her chair at changeovers.
She says she has been working on trying to control her emotions but pointed out that plenty of great players had dealt with similar issues early in their careers.
“I knew that [Roger] Federer was struggling with emotions when he was teenager,” she said.
“I’m not the only one who also struggles.
“I thought that I just need to wait a little bit and it will go away. But it doesn’t work like this. You just have to work on yourself.”
She says one of the things she does to help is talk to herself before bed.
“I turn off the lights and I just try to speak to myself just about the day, about everything. That time after French Open, I spoke about the game. It kind of helped me.”
Andreeva had been seeking to become the youngest player since Anna Kournikova in 1997 to make the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Keys, meanwhile, is into her second Wimbledon quarter-final, having made the same stage in 2015, and the 28-year-old will take on the winner of Monday’s fourth-round match between Belarusian second seed Aryna Sabalenka and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.