Mirra Andreeva forced to walk away from microphone and apologise after China Open win
Mirra Andreeva had to step away from the microphone while addressing fans at the China Open, as she was bombarded by flies. The No. 4 seed beat Nikola Bartunkova 6-2 6-2 to reach her fourth career WTA 1000 final, and her second of the season. She then stepped forward for her on-court interview, but had to step away several times to swat away flies that were buzzing around her head. Andreeva apologised but still managed to get through her interview before leaving the court to prepare for Sunday’s final.
Andreeva needed just an hour and 15 minutes to beat Bartunkova, who had already caused plenty of upsets this week. And that wasn’t the only battle the fourth seed faced on Saturday, as she also found herself fighting off some flies immediately after the match.
The teenager was asked about her mindset during her semi-finals match, but was thrown off by the insects, flapping her hand in front of her face. “Sorry… Oh god!” Andreeva laughed as she tried to compose herself.
“Okay, I wanted to play aggressive today. I feel like she’s a very tricky opponent to play against. She has a great serve, she has an amazing touch, she likes to move the ball around. At the same time, with all of that, she manages to sometimes hit rockets out of nowhere. So it was tough to play against her.”
Andreeva was then cut off by the flies again, turning away from the microphone and waving her arms before returning to finish answering the question. “It’s a very cheeky fly,” she joked, as the crowd laughed. “So yeah, I just tried to play aggressive. I’m really happy with the way I was playing, I really tried to be brave, no matter what, and super happy with my performance today.
The Roland Garros champion continued to walk away and swat the flies with her hands while the on-court interviewer translated her answers for the crowd. She also opened up on her pre-match ritual with her coach, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez.
“It’s one of my routines. First, of course, we talk about the match. But then when I’m just tired of listening to her, we just play Uno, and that’s our thing before the match to help me be a little bit more relaxed and to have less nerves,” she smiled.
The 19-year-old is through to the championship match in Beijing for the first time, where she’ll face either Qinwen Zheng or Elise Mertens. “For sure, I will watch a little bit of their match tonight to also see a lot of different things,” Andreeva added.
I’m sure Conchita will prepare her best, and she’s going to give me the plan. I rely on her, it’s her job, so I hope she’s going to prepare me well enough for the final! Just very excited to be in the final, it’s two amazing players in the second semi-final, so let’s see who will win, and no matter who I’ll play against, I’ll try to prepare my best.”
For Bartunkova, her fairytale run has come to an end, but she’s set to rise to a new career-high ranking of No. 28 in the world. The Czech star stunned Aryna Sabalenka in the third round before taking out Wimbledon finalist Karolina Muchova in the quarter-finals, but she couldn’t cause another upset against Andreeva.
