A Wimbledon star was overcome with emotion after suffering a bitter exit
Mirra Andreeva burst into tears during her post-match press conference at Wimbledon after a shock second-round defeat.
The Russian had angrily thrown her racket on Centre Court following the loss to Barbora Krejcikova. The No.5 seed was among the favourites to enjoy a deep run at Wimbledon – she had previously gone far at the tournament and arrived having claimed her first Grand Slam title at the French Open.
However, she was dealt a tough draw, coming up against Krejcikova – a two-time Major champion who won the title at SW19 in 2024 – in the second round. Andreeva battled right to the end, saving six match points in a gruelling game at 5-3 in the deciding set when Krejcikova served for the match.
But her valiant efforts proved insufficient, as the world No. 38 ultimately broke to win 4-6 7-5 6-4.
Andreeva immediately threw her racket towards the side of the court in frustration after sending the ball long to hand Krejcikova the victory, before quickly leaving the court. She appeared in front of the media around half an hour later, and started to cry when asked how she would come to terms with the loss.
“Well, I think of course I’m going to need a couple days,” she said before tearing up. The 19-year-old was asked if she wanted to take a moment, but shook her head and continued.
“Sorry. Yeah, it’s going to take some time, maybe a couple of days, and then I’m going to be back to practice for hard courts. I don’t know what my next tournaments are going to be. I still need to talk to my team to see where I’m going to play next.”
Andreeva also suffered a first-round exit in Bad Homburg last week, yet was reluctant to attribute her struggles to the quick change from clay to grass following her French Open title run. “Well, yeah, it’s not easy. But, I mean, I’m not the only one that does that, so… I think more or less we’re in even conditions,” she said.
The fifth seed also regretted her missed chances, admitting she couldn’t do enough after winning the mammoth ninth game of the final set. Andreeva explained: “I felt as soon as I won that game I felt like I had a lot of great chances to make the score even with my serve.
“Yeah, I didn’t serve very well, didn’t win a lot of free points with my serve as I usually do. I felt like yes, it could have been a turning point. As you can see, it didn’t work and it wasn’t the turning point in the end.
“I think she played well today. She’s a tricky opponent, especially to play against her on grass. She changes the rhythm a lot. The slices and dropshots, here they stay low, they don’t bounce. I’ve had some trouble with that, as well.
“A lot of mistakes today also. Yeah, she played well, but I felt like I could have also played better. That’s it.”
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