A scandalous episode has unfolded at the Women's Tennis Association (WTA): a live broadcast of American Jessica Pegula's practice session caught her sharp remarks about Russian player Mirra Andreeva and her coach Conchita Martinez, infohub.kz reports.
The WTA streamed the practice live on its YouTube channel. According to the source, Pegula spoke harshly about world No. 3 Andreeva and her coach after the session.
It emerged that Mirra and Jessica did not even finish their practice set: the Russian and her team reportedly simply left the court, leaving Pegula to train alone. Both players qualified for the WTA Finals and were preparing in Indian Wells.
"Andreeva behaves like a real diva. She should be more humble. Conchita has always been very nice to me, but I've lost a little respect for her. I think she just can't handle Mirra. It's like she herself eggs her on and encourages that behavior. You're leading 4:0, you're rude to your coach, you throw balls at him… That's disrespect. Just shut up already! If I were her coach and my player had just played four great games, leading 4:0, and then got angry at me and ran after me… I'd tell her not to talk to me like that. She's bad… I think she needs to be provoked so she gets fired up and starts reacting," Pegula said on air.
After the moment from the broadcast spread around the world, the WTA deleted the recording from its channel.