Mirra Andreeva frustrated by controversial call but reaches final
· Yahoo Sports
Andreeva marches into Madrid Open final after Baptiste win
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Mirra Andreeva has booked her spot in the Madrid Open final for the first time, defeating Hailey Baptiste on Thursday afternoon.
The top remaining seed in the draw overcame the American 30th seed 6-4, 7-6 inside Caja Magica.
Andreeva will take on either Anastasia Potapova or Marta Kostyuk in Saturday’s final, a matchup that could hold plenty of significance for reasons outside the main storylines.
This wasn’t a straightforward outing for the teenager. She was forced to raise an issue with the umpire midway through the opening set.
Mirra Andreeva questions line call during Madrid Open semi-final
Photo by Tim Clayton/Getty ImagesAt 2-2 in the second set, Hailey Baptiste hit a forehand winner that looked to have just grazed the baseline.
Andreeva wasn’t convinced by the Electronic Line Call, pointing out what she thought was a clear gap between the ball mark and the line.
The umpire’s system backed up the call, showing green for in. But Hawkeye, available to TV viewers but not players on court, confirmed Baptiste’s shot was indeed good.
Without access to that replay, Andreeva walked over to speak with umpire Kader Nouni.
Nouni responded: “You know how it works, right? You know how it works. Unfortunately I had the green light. It is 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 said: “Exactly. First of all I haven’t seen this one out.”
The Russian gestured with her hands to show what she believed was a wide margin and added: “But this is not even like this [close], this is like that [gestures large gap].”
Nouni responded: “Yeah but between the ball and the mark there is a difference.”
The game resumed after Andreeva headed back to her side of the court, but she brought up her concerns again during a changeover.
Previous complaints about line calls in Madrid
Earlier in the tournament, Elena Rybakina raised concerns over 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.
She added: “Well with this thing, I won’t trust it at all, because there was no mark even close to what the TV showed.”
This isn’t the first time players have had issues with the ELC system. Last year, Alexander Zverev received a code violation during his third-round win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after using his phone to photograph a ball mark he believed had been miscalled by the technology.
“To be honest, I like the electronic line calling,” Zverev said before 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.”
Zverev went on: “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.”
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