It was only fitting that Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva‘s maiden clash got set up after both were involved in a controversy. The two will lock horns for the first time ever on the Tour in the semifinals of the WTA Finals. The clash was set up after Pegula secured her place in the knockouts with a hard-fought 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 win over Linda Noskova. While the American is excited to face Andreeva for the first time, she knows that the match will be anything but easy.

“Well, I was like, the storylines just write themselves. It’s the match people wanted, well, now you’re going to get it,” she said on The Tennis Channel. “No, I mean, she’s played great. I watched her play Sabalenka. I feel like she’s such an efficient player. I feel she moves so efficiently, she is fast. I think she has a great serve. She’s strong, she hits the ball pretty hard, and she’s smart. You could see how efficient she made her tennis look against Sabalenka.”

With both Pegula and Andreeva being among the highest-ranked players in the world, the winner of their maiden encounter is hard to predict. But the one thing Pegula is sure about is that the match will be a good watch for the fans.

“But yeah, I’m going to do my best. It’s crazy. We’ve literally only practiced twice, and we’ve never played each other. So, it’s kind of a weird feeling knowing that you’re playing at the WTA Finals. Like, that doesn’t happen very often. So, I think it will be a good match,” she added.

It is safe to say that there is a lot of hype around their upcoming clash. The anticipation has been created mainly because of the hot-mic controversy, which saw Pegula make some very questionable remarks about Andreeva ahead of the WTA Finals. The incident occurred when the two were practicing, and the Russian was leading the set 4-0.

Pegula got frustrated and remarked that the youngster needs to be humbled. She also sarcastically called Andreeva a ‘diva’ and wasn’t happy with her on-court behavior. While this controversy could have created a rift between the two, things mellowed after they had a private conversation and set aside their differences. In fact, Pegula has now revealed that Andreeva didn’t take the controversy too seriously and even embraced being called a diva.

“I think we’ve all seen that Mirra has a pretty good sense of humour with everything,” she told Christian’s Court. “So, she was totally fine, and she said she embraces it, so it was kind of funny. I was like, maybe I need a little bit more of that in myself on the court. But yeah, it was all good.”

The controversy could have very well been avoided if the WTA had told the players that microphones were in place as they were practicing. This whole incident not only led to sharp criticism against Pegula, but the WTA also came under scrutiny for its mistake. The situation got so bad that the association had to apologize to the players.

WTA released an official apology for the hot-mic controversy

“The WTA 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 at the WTA Finals,” the statement read. “We sincerely apologize for failing to meet our responsibility to ensure players and coaches were properly informed.”

The video of Pegula commenting about Andreeva spread like wildfire because the WTA was livestreaming the practice sessions ahead of the WTA Finals. All of the sessions were available to watch on the association’s official YouTube channel.

However, they were quick to remove the videos of all practice sessions once the controversy blew up. But the damage had already been done, as clips of the sessions had already circulated across social media. Even more clips surfaced after the WTA removed all the videos.

The controversy mainly affected Pegula, as she was subjected to severe criticism just days before the WTA Finals. But she didn’t let it affect her performance and secured a spot in the semifinals despite coming up short against Coco Gauff in the opening match.

Pegula secured impressive victories over Marta Kostyuk and Linda Noskova to finish second in Group 1. While she will take on Andreeva in the last 4, the other semifinal is yet to be decided. Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina are still in contention to qualify, and the winner of their upcoming group stage clash will face Noskova in the semifinals.