Mirra Andreeva found herself surrounded by criticism for breaking down after her heartbreaking defeat at the Madrid Open final against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk. As the backlash intensified, Naomi Osaka’s former coach, Sascha Bajin, supported the 19-year-old Russian by dropping a blunt response to her critics.
Kostyuk maintained her unbeaten run on clay this season, ousting Andreeva with a 6-3, 7-5 win to lift her maiden WTA 1000 title at Caja Majica. Kostyuk raised the bar against high-seeded Andreeva and established her dominance early, striking four winners in the opening game.
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After her serve broke early, Andreeva rallied back to claim the next three games and take a 3-1 lead. Kostyuk’s spirit didn’t waver as she mounted a remarkable comeback to take the opener and maintained her authority to bag her second title on clay this season.
Mirra Andreeva, shattered after the defeat, got overwhelmed by emotions, buried her face in the towel and wept after the match. Trolls bombarded the social media with their jibes aimed at the young Russian. Sascha threw his weight behind Andreeva, silencing the critics who called her out for ‘regressing mentally’.
“Everybody who’s shitting on Mirra, a 19 year old girl for crying after loosing the finals clearly never dedicated his or her whole life towards one thing. Never played any competitive sports and clearly doesn’t understand the concept of giving it your all but still getting beaten,” Sascha wrote on X.
Sascha hopes Andreeva doesn’t “forget” the joy that comes with winning which becomes the case with some great players.
“You gotta hate loosing and it has to hurt in order for you to be successful. I just hope she doesn’t forget the joy of winning and doesn’t see winning as the norm. Great players tend to forget that sometimes,” Sascha posted on X.
Even after suffering a disappointment at the end, Mirra Andreeva continues to revel in a remarkable season. She has already claimed titles at Adelaide and Linz and is projected to move to World No. 7 after the ranking update on Monday.
Emotional Mirra Andreeva hopes to improve her attitude after losing
Mirra Andreeva addressed her reaction to the Madrid Open final loss, which became a point of discussion. She explained that suffering a defeat is painful and “the end of the world” to her. The 19-year-old struggles to understand how other players can smile after a loss. She remains hopeful about improving her reaction to a defeat in future.
“Every time I lose, it’s like the end of the world to me. I don’t know. Sometimes I see other players smile right after the matches they lost. I don’t understand how people do it. I wish I could do it. Every match that I lose is obviously very disappointing and very painful to me,” Mirra Andreeva said in her post-match press conference.
“I hope that maybe in the future this can improve and I can maybe, after the match that I lose, talk about it right away and not (have to) take some time before starting to talk about it,” Andreeva added.
After missing out on the singles crown, Andreeva has a shot at leaving Madrid with silverware in the doubles category. She is competing in the women’s doubles final with fellow Diana Shnaider against Kateřina Siniaková and Taylor Townsend on Sunday.
Edited by Shyam Kamal
