The Women’s Tennis Association has taken “full responsibility” and apologised after Jessica Pegula was caught calling Mirra Andreeva a “diva” during a practice session where the audio was being live streamed without her knowledge.
The incident has erupted ahead of the WTA Finals in Indian Wells, the year-end tournament involving the best eight players of the season, and after Pegula, the American world No 5, criticised the attitude of the Russian tenager Andreeva, the world No 3 and French Open champion.
The WTA had placed microphones at the back of the practice courts to capture ambient sounds, with fans tuning in to see Pegula’s preparations. But they instead heard a conversation between Pegula and her coach Mark Knowles, which was then clipped up and shared online.
In the exchange, Pegula can be heard saying the 19-year-old needs to be “humbled”. She also said had lost respect for former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, who is Andreeva’s coach, for not calling out her behaviour.
Andreeva won her first grand slam title at this year’s French Open, but Pegula went on to say that she would be better than Coco Gauff if she had her fellow American’s mentality. Pegula had taken to the practice court after Andreeva
After her coach Knowles said that Andreeva treats Martinez “so bad”, Pegula replies: “Conchita's always been very nice to me, but I've lost a little respect for her because I'm like, this girl - I think she's a nice girl - she's just a diva. She needs to be humbled. She needs to be [inaudible] putting her in her place; [inaudible] stand up to her."
The WTA has since removed the practice sessions from YouTube, while there was another incident involving world No 1 Elena Rybakina in which she appeared to have an argument with her coach Stefano Vukov.
Mirra Andreeva and Conchita Martinez after winning the French Open this year (Getty)Pegula was among the players to complain that they felt like “zoo animals” at this year’s Australian Open after footage of Gauff smashing her racket in a “private” area was broadcast to the world.
A WTA spokesperson said: “The WTA takes full responsibility for failing to inform our players and their teams that microphones, in place to give fans a livestream of the players’ practice, were active on the courts at the WTA Finals. We sincerely apologise for failing to meet our responsibility to ensure players and coaches were properly informed.”
Pegula and Andreeva have been drawn into different groups at the WTA Finals, so they cannot play until the semi-finals.