Tennis player Mirra Andreeva at the last moment lost the opportunity to compete at the WTA Final Tournament in singles.

It turned out that the culprit was not problems with documents, but an erroneous decision by the team. The miscalculation cost the best tennis player in Russia tens of millions of rubles.

“She doesn’t have a visa”

Now Mirra is playing at the Final Tournament in Riyadh only in doubles, but the first racket of Russia could also play in singles. Andreeva kept her chances until the last, but only six points were missing to get into the top eight. The ticket to Saudi Arabia was stolen from under the nose of our athlete by ex-Russian Elena Rybakina, who successfully performed at the tournament in Tokyo.

Mirra could relatively easily maintain her place in the top 8 of the world rankings, but to do this she needed to play in the capital of Japan. Andreeva did not register for the tournament due to unsuccessful results. The decision is quite understandable, but the situation was stirred up by Australian tennis player Ellen Perez, who reported that our athlete did not have documents to travel to the country.

“She doesn’t have a visa to play in Tokyo,” Perez wrote on her social networks.

Many took this message incorrectly, believing that the Russian woman was unable to get to Japan due to bureaucratic problems. Against the backdrop of this interpretation, the financial losses of the 18-year-old tennis player looked catastrophic, because for just one participation in three group stage matches at the Final Tournament, each tennis player receives $340 thousand (27.5 million rubles). Each victory adds another $355 thousand (28.7 million rubles) to the bank account. The prize money for the next stages is already in the millions of dollars.

Mirra Andreeva / Photo: © Clicks Images / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

“It turned out to be the wrong decision.”

Already in Riyadh, Mirra clarified the issue with the visa. According to the Russian woman, she had no problems in this regard. She missed the tournament in Tokyo after communicating with the team, which advised against going to Japan due to unsuccessful performances.

— We talked with the team and decided to skip the tournament. In the end, this turned out to be the wrong decision. Knowledge comes with experience. This is only my second season in adult tennis, and even then it’s incomplete. I think we will learn a lesson from this, gain experience, and next time, I think we will not repeat this mistake,” AFP quoted Andreeva as saying.

Now Mirra is only fighting for the doubles title with Diana Schneider. Unfortunately, the opening match was unsuccessful for the Russians. They lost in a bitter fight to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe.

Andreeva still has a small chance to compete in the singles tournament if one of the participants gets injured, because Mirra is in first reserve status. But the first matches have already been played there, and no one is in a hurry to film yet.