Mirra Andreeva narrowly avoided disqualification from the French Open as she fired a ball into the stands. The 16-year-old is making her Grand Slam debut in Paris and came up against Coco Gauff in the third round. The youngster received a code violation for smashing the ball away after blowing two set points before taking the opener 7-6(5).
Gauff found herself in a unique situation in her third round match as she was the elder player compared to Andreeva – a 16-year-old qualifier playing in her first Grand Slam main draw. The Russian has made waves this clay season, also having a strong run in Madrid before her debut in Paris.
And it was the world No 143 who had the upper hand in their match after almost an hour had passed. The pair were embroiled in a first-set tiebreak where Andreeva raced to a 6-3 lead with three set points. But she blew the first two and shared her frustration, firing a ball towards the lower section of the stands on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The move saw her pick up a code violation but it could have been game over for the teenager. Had the ball hit anyone in the stands, Andreeva would have automatically been defaulted from the tournament.
The qualifier managed to win the opening set on the very next point after 61 minutes of competition. And she was dragged to a third and final set when last year’s finalist Gauff responded by taking the second 6-1.
But it could have been a very different end to the match and the tournament for the debutant. Novak Djokovic has previously seen himself disqualified from a Grand Slam event for unintentionally striking a lineswoman when he also hit a ball away in frustration.
The Serb had been broken in the opening set of his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreno Busta when he also let out some steam by hitting the ball away. But it ended in disaster when the ball hit the lines official in the throat.
While Andreeva won’t want to replicate Djokovic’s previous mistake, she does have her eyes on outdoing the Serb at something else. The 16-year-old recently shared her wish to win even more Grand Slams than the world No 3 – who is tied with Rafael Nadal on 22 titles.
“The dream: I know that Djokovic, he did 22 Grand Slams, so I want to go until 25 if it will be possible,” she said earlier this week. “For now my goal is to win match by match, to win the next match. Then if I win this match, it’s to win the next match after that. As my coach says, to not be like a diva, to stay humble all the time.”
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.