Tennis star aged 16 narrowly avoids being kicked out of French Open
Mirra Andreeva narrowly prevented 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 got here up in opposition to Coco Gauff within the third spherical. The teen obtained a code violation for smashing the ball away after blowing two set factors earlier than taking the opener 7-6(5).
Gauff discovered herself in a singular scenario in her third spherical match as she was the elder participant in comparison with Andreeva – a 16-year-old qualifier enjoying in her first Grand Slam important draw. The Russian has made waves this clay season, additionally having a powerful run in Madrid earlier than her debut in Paris.
And it was the world No 143 who had the higher hand of their match after virtually an hour had handed. The pair had been embroiled in a first-set tiebreak the place Andreeva raced to a 6-3 lead with three set factors. But she blew the primary two and shared her frustration, firing a ball in the direction of the decrease part of the stands on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The transfer noticed her choose up a code violation but it surely may have been sport over for {the teenager}. Had the ball hit anybody within the stands, Andreeva would have mechanically been defaulted from the event.
The qualifier managed to win the opening set on the very subsequent level after 61 minutes of competitors. And she was dragged to a 3rd and ultimate set when final 12 months’s finalist Gauff responded by taking the second 6-1.
But it may have been a really totally different finish to the match and the event for the debutant. Novak Djokovic has beforehand seen himself disqualified from a Grand Slam occasion for unintentionally putting a lineswoman when he additionally hit a ball away in frustration.
The Serb had been damaged within the opening set of his fourth-round match in opposition to Pablo Carreno Busta when he additionally let loose some steam by hitting the ball away. But it led to catastrophe when the ball hit the traces official within the throat.
While Andreeva will not wish to replicate Djokovic’s earlier mistake, she does have her eyes on outdoing the Serb at one thing else. The 16-year-old just lately shared her wish to win even more Grand Slams than the world No 3 – who’s 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 stated 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.”