After a week of showing her maturity at her first Wimbledon, 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva has showed her inexperience in defeat.
The Russian qualifier, who had won all six of her matches on grass to reach the fourth round at the All England Club, let a big lead over 25th-seeded Madison Keys slip away in a 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 loss on No. 2 Court.
Andreeva took the first set and led 3-0 in the second — winning nine of 10 games in one stretch — before Keys turned things around. Frustrated at one point, Andreeva threw her racket and received a warning from Swedish chair umpire Louise Azemar Engzell.
In the final game, Andreeva slipped while going for a ball and the racket again went flying out of her hand.
Engzell docked the Russian a point for a second thrown racket, giving Keys a match point. Andreeva argued the call, pleading her case.
“I didn’t throw the racket. I fell,” Andreeva told Engzell. “I slid and then I fell.”
The call stood, however, and Keys then finished off the match to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time since 2015.
Afterwards the teen did not shake the umpire’s hand.
Andreeva, the youngest player in the Wimbledon draw, was bidding to become the youngest player to reach the last eght since Anna Kournikova in 1997.
Defending champion Elena Rybakina has reached the quarter-finals. She advanced when Beatriz Haddad Maia retired from their match with a hip injury with Rybakina leading 4-1.
The Brazilian had a lengthy medical timeout trailing 3-1 and tried to carry on but after being unable to move during a Rybakina service game it was clear that she could not continue.
Having been in tears throughout the last game, she reluctantly walked to the net and shook hands with the score at 4-1
with agencies