SEE: Umpire’s hilarious warning to spectators at Wimbledon. Video: Kind courtesy Wimbledon/Twitter
When chair umpires warn spectators against disturbing players during matches at Wimbledon, it is often the banal ‘Quiet Please’.
But on Sunday, July 9, 2023, during the women’s singles third round match between schoolgirl and tennis prodigy Mirra Andreeva and 22nd seed Anastasia Potapova, Umpire John Blum left everyone in splits with his innovative warning.
Just before Potapova was getting ready to serve at 15-0 in the first game of the first set, Blum warned the crowd: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, please if you are opening a bottle of champagne, don’t do it as the player is about to serve. Thank you.’
His ‘warning’ received an approval from Potapova who gave a little nod while the crowds and the commentators had a good laugh.
IMAGE: Mirra Andreeva in action during her third round match against Anastasia Potapova on Sunday. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Reuters
Mirra Andreeva, who beat her Russian compatriot Anastasia Potapova to reach the Wimbledon fourth round, said she had been working on the psychological side of her game and 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal was an example to follow.
‘Nadal, he won the French Open in 2022. I was really impressed because after an injury, he came back, he won the Australian Open, he won the French Open,’ the 16 year old said.
‘I can say that now mental-wise I just try sometimes to copy him.’
The teenager, who is now based in Cannes in the south of France with her older sister Erika, also a tennis professional, sidestepped questions that verged on the political or controversial.
She diverted the answer into speaking of support she received from her family and others in her hometown of Krasnoyarsk who were posting stories about her success on social media.
Andreeva, who meets 25th seed American Madison Keys in the next round, said she separates her work on court from life away from it.
‘I’m just a normal teenager… I have to do my school. I have no choice. I have to suffer for two more years…’ she said.
‘On the court I just try to think only about tennis, about the game, about the next point. But outside the court I’m different.’
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