The WTA apologizes after Pegula's rant at Andreeva: "We take full responsibility"
The organization stated that they should have "informed the players that the microphones on the practice courts were active"
The WTA Finals in Indian Wells arrive this Sunday with an off-court incident involving Jessica Pegula, number five in the rankings, who was caught on Wednesday by cameras and ambient microphones criticizing Russia's Mirra Andreeva, Roland Garros champion and number 3 in the rankings.
Following what happened, the WTA, the Women's Tennis Association, has issued a statement apologizing for not having informed the tennis players that these microphones were live during the training sessions that were broadcast this week on the WTA's YouTube channel.
Thus, Jessica told her coach in the middle of a practice session at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden that "I lost respect for her. She's a good girl, but she needs to mature. I don't know if it's because she doesn't know how to handle it." In addition, she stated that "if I were her coach and my player had just played four great games, was leading 4-0, got angry with me and chased after me... I would tell her not to talk to me like that. She's a diva and needs to be taken down a peg."
The WTA said in a statement that "the WTA takes full responsibility for not having informed our players and their teams that the microphones, installed to offer fans a live broadcast of the players' practice sessions, were active on the courts at the WTA Finals".
The recordings of Wednesday's training sessions have now been removed from YouTube, although images of the conversation had already spread on the Internet.
