WTA Finals: Mirra Andreeva criticised by Jessica Pegula during an interaction with her coach ahead of season-ending tournament

The WTA Tour says it takes "full responsibility" after Mirra Andreeva was labelled a "diva" who "needs to be humbled" by Jessica Pegula during a conversation with her coach in practice at the season-ending WTA Finals in Indian Wells.

American star Pegula is at the centre of controversy after being picked up on a hot mic criticising 19-year-old French Open champion Andreeva and her coach Conchita Martinez at the year-end tournament in California.

The practice session at Indian Wells was live streamed by the Women's Tennis Association on its YouTube channel with the WTA Tour Finals starting on Sunday.

All the practice streams from this year's event have since been removed from the platform.

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"Conchita's always been very nice to me, but I lost a little respect for her, because I'm just like, this girl, she's a nice girl. She's a diva. She needs to be humbled. Conchita eggs on her behaviour," the American was heard saying about her rival to one of her coaches, Mark Knowles.

"If I were her coach and my player had just played four great games, she's up 4-0, she gets mad at me and chases me down... I'd tell her not to talk to me like that.

"She's bad... I feel like she needs to be provoked to get fired up and react."

Spaniard Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion, began working with Andreeva in 2024.

Andreeva reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year before sealing her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in June.

Pegula, who is a member of the WTA players' council, went on to claim that, were Andreeva to adopt Coco Gauff's mentality, she would become a much better player:

"It's so funny 'cause if you see her and Coco's mentality, if she had Coco's mentality, she's better than her. Serve and everything and moves just as good," she said.

But Pegula, runner-up at the 2024 US Open, also praised Andreeva, saying the world No 3 is "wonderful" and "smart".

In a statement issued on Thursday, the WTA Tour said it takes "full responsibility for failing to inform our players and their teams that microphones, in place to give fans a livestream of the players' practice, were active on the courts. We sincerely apologise for failing to meet our responsibility to ensure players and coaches were properly informed".

The WTA went on to explain: "The microphones were intended to capture the ambient sounds of tennis, not player or coach conversations. However, conversations were captured, and we recognise that we failed to ensure the appropriate safeguards were in place.

"We are continuing with live streaming of practice but there will not be any audio."

Pegula has been drawn to face Gauff, world No 1 and defending WTA Finals champion Elena Rybakina, and Linda Noskova, who won her maiden Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon this year.

Andreeva will avoid Pegula having been drawn alongside Aryna Sabalenka, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova.

The WTA Finals is set to take place between November 8-15 at Indian Wells, before it moves to its new, permanent location of Charlotte, North Carolina in 2027.

The tournament had been hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the past two seasons, with Gauff and Rybakina lifting the title in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

Stream tennis with no contract on NOW and the Sky Sports App. You can watch the ATP Paris Masters live on Sky Sports this week with the WTA Finals in Indian Wells starting on Sunday.

(c) Sky Sports 2026: WTA Finals: Mirra Andreeva criticised by Jessica Pegula during an interaction with her coach ahead of season-ending tournament