Mirra Andreeva has advanced to the Madrid Open final for the first time in her career after beating Hailey Baptiste on Thursday afternoon.
Andreeva, the highest remaining seed left in the Madrid Open draw, defeated the American 30th seed 6-4, 7-6 in the Caja Magica.
The Russian, who recently entered an elite conversation alongside tennis legend Martina Hingis, will play Anastasia Potapova or Marta Kostyuk in the Madrid Open final.
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The match was far from a simple affair for the 18-year-old, who issued a complaint to the umpire midway through the first set.
Mirra Andreeva’s complaint about a line call
At 2-2 in the second set, Baptiste struck a forehand winner which appeared to clip the back of the baseline.
However, Andreeva took issue with the call made by the Electronic Line Call system, explaining that there was a significant gap between the line and the mark left by the ball.
The Hawkeye system, which is being utilised by broadcasters throughout the Madrid Open, showed that the ball had indeed caught the back of the line.
However, Andreeva did not have the image available to her, and she approached the umpire’s chair.
As she approached, Umpire Kader Nouni said: “You know how it works, right? You know how it works. Unfortunately I had the green light, it’s what it is, now we have to go for it.
Andreeva replied: “So even if you see that it’s out, you cannot overrule?”
Nouni then responded: “I mean, exactly. First of all, I haven’t seen this one out.”
Andreeva then gestured to ball being out by a significant margin: “But this is not even like this [close], this is like that [gestures large gap].”
Nouni [pictured below] replied: “Yeah, but between the ball and the mark there is a difference.”
Andreeva continued: “But this is like that, we’re not talking about this, this is that. This is like five centimetres we’re talking about.”
The umpire then concluded the discussion by saying: “I do understand you, but I have the green light and I have to follow.”
Andreeva then returned to the back of the court, where she and Baptiste contested the rest of the game.
At the change of ends, Andreeva again raised the same issue.
“I understand that you cannot overrule. But as players, what do we do?” she said.
“That’s a good question,” Nouni responded.
“But I think you need to know exactly how it works. Sometimes what you see, you see the mark, you see space. But the bounce, the image.
Andreeva replied: “I know, I know that sometimes it happens, especially on the serve, but this is just, you haven’t seen the mark.
The umpire added: “For me, I think it is quite close.”
Andreeva continued: “Yeah quite close – it’s this. This is not close. I understand that you cannot do anything but as players, this can mean a lot. For you just one point but for players sometimes it’s a lot.
Umpire: “I know. I do understand your point. But technically and by the procedure, nothing I can do.”
There have been previous line call complaints in Madrid
Earlier this week, Elena Rybakina took issue with a call made by the electronic system during her match against Qinwen Zheng.
“The system is wrong, this is not a joke,” Rybakina told a Madrid Open official.
“Well with this thing, I won’t trust it at all, because there was no mark even close to what the TV showed.”
Last year, Alexander Zverev was handed a code violation during a third-round win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after pulling out his mobile phone to take a photo of a ball mark he believed had been incorrectly called by the ELC system.
“To be honest, I like the electronic line calling,” Zverev said ahead of the 2025 Italian Open.
“I think there was absolutely no mistakes in Monte Carlo, there were no mistakes in Munich. I think there was something wrong with the system in Madrid.
“I think the weeks before it worked perfectly fine. It was mistake-free kind of. I still think that it’s the right way to go forward, too. When mistakes happen like this in Madrid, maybe they have to readjust it for the next day, readjust the system a little bit.”
