Mirra Andreeva was clearly not happy following her defeat to Katerina Siniakova at Indian Wells.
Andreeva was the defending champion at Indian Wells, having won her second WTA 1000 title in California last year.
The 18-year-old had made an emphatic start to her title defence, with Andreeva making history after beating Solana Sierra 6-0, 6-0.
However, things came unstuck for Andreeva in her following match, as she was beaten by Siniakova, but the main talking point was her angry reaction towards the crowd when leaving the court.
Mirra Andreeva admits ‘anger’ after Indian Wells defeat
Andreeva was noticeably frustrated throughout the match against Siniakova, smashing her racket and making gestures towards her team.
However, it really boiled over for Andreeva after she was beaten 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3, by Siniakova, as she could be heard saying expletives towards the crowd.
This is not the first time that Andreeva has been left in a visibly distressed state on court, and after having some time to reflect following her doubles win with Victoria Mboko, she admitted that she was not proud of her actions.
“Well, of course I can say that there were a lot of emotions that I was going through after the loss,” Andreeva said in her press conference. “But of course I’m not really proud of how I managed it. I’m not really proud of how I handled it in the end.
“Those are the things that [I] really need to work on soon. I don’t know. Not in the future but whenever I get the chance. Yeah, I hope that I can work on it and I get better in that, as well.”
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Andreeva was then asked a follow-up question as to whether her outburst was towards the crowd, to which she responded by suggesting it was at everyone, including herself.
“It was to myself, to everyone, basically,” answered Andreeva. “I mean, after the loss, I just get very angry, so I say those things sometimes to myself. I mean, first to myself, of course, but then, yeah, it was just anger coming out, just a lot of emotions. Not really towards anyone.”
Mirra Andreeva explains how she can take inspiration from Serena Williams
Andreeva’s temperament is becoming a consistent talking point during and after her losses, and after the match she was asked if there were any players she could look to for inspiration in how to improve on this.
The Russian teenager explained that Martina Hingis was her idol in terms of game style, before Andreeva suggested that Serena Williams could be someone she could look up to.
“In terms of game style, I think one of my idols is Martina Hingis,” said Andreeva. “I really love her as a person and as a player as well.
“I was actually thinking about it recently. I think the one person that was handling losses very well was Serena Williams, like I’ve never heard or seen her upset or, you know, even I remember, like, she was losing finals on the slams, and she would always smile and be happy for her opponent that she won the match and she got the trophy.
“So maybe it’s something that I can also try to learn, and yeah, we’ll see how that’s gonna go. Yeah, we’ll see.”
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As a result of her Indian Wells exit, Andreeva will now lose 935 ranking points and risks dropping out of the top 10 in the WTA rankings.
Andreeva will have an opportunity to make up these points at the Miami Open, where she only won one match last year.
However, before she heads to Florida, Andreeva will continue to play doubles with Mboko in Indian Wells, where they are now in the quarterfinals after saving two match points in their latest match.
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