“It’s really f**ked up” – Andy Roddick brutally slams WTA for throwing Jessica Pegula under the bus with WTA Finals ‘Diva’ drama
Andy Roddick has thrown his support behind Jessica Pegula, blaming the WTA instead for throwing the American under the bus for the ‘Diva’ drama that happened at the WTA Finals.
Things came to a standstill in Indian Wells this week when a private conversation between Pegula and her team leaked on social media. During a practice session with Mirra Andreeva, Pegula was heard bad-mouthing the Russian for being a ‘diva’ who needed to be ‘humbled.’
Pegula was also heard complaining about Andreeva’s coach Conchita Martinez, whom she felt was encouraging the teenager’s behavior instead of asking her to tone it down.
“I lost a bit of respect for her. I’m like this girl, I think she’s a nice girl, she’s just a bit of a diva. She needs to be humbled. And Conchita doesn’t do it,” Pegula was heard saying.
The conversation was picked up by the mics on the site placed by the WTA, but the players were not properly informed that their words would also be relayed to fans in a live video. In the aftermath of this information, fans sided with Pegula and blamed the WTA for the mishap, a sentiment echoed by Roddick in the latest episode of his Served podcast.
Roddick was of the opinion that the WTA had, intentionally or otherwise, damaged Pegula’s reputation by not informing her about the hot mic, calling the situation ‘ridiculous.’
“It’s really f**ked up. Putting mics on people and not telling them is ridiculous. Like imagine you go into a board meeting for the WTA and you put mics in there and stream it and don’t tell anyone,” Roddick said (from 1:45).
“When you’re in this thing and you’re going, ‘Trust us, trust us, trust us, trust us.’ Especially you’re throwing that person under the bus, who is literally spending hours and hours and hours of her life at the negotiating tables and trying to do it and you hot mic her,” he added.
The former World No. 1 further added that Pegula would be fully justified in feeling disappointed in the WTA for the way she has been treated, saying:
“It’s a bad look. Terrible look. Like if I’m Jessica Pegula and that happens to me, I’ll be furious. I’m flipping chairs somewhere.”
Mirra Andreeva downplays Diva incident at WTA Finals with Jessica Pegula
In her post-match interview with the press after the opening-match win, Mirra Andreeva addressed the ‘Diva’ incident with Jessica Pegula, revealing that they have buried the hatchet after Pegula reached out to her.
Andreeva emphasized that there was no more drama, but refused to disclose exactly what Pegula told her in private.
Pegula is 1-1 at the WTA Finals, while Andreeva is 1-0 with a win over Elina Svitolina in her first fixture.
