Bianca Andreescu wasn’t having the best time during her match at the 2023 Citi Open in Washington against Marta Kostyuk, as she screamed at a fan who was disrupting her.
It was a heated clash against Kostyuk of Ukraine at the Citi Open for Andreescu. Kostyuk is known as a very tricky player to face because she brings a lot of power and never gives up.
Whoever plays her likely feels like they’re being bombarded from the baseline, which is true for the most part. After two sets of that, emotions were already running high for Andreescu, especially with a fan being rather disrespectful to her.
Every time she missed a serve, the spectator yelled out and celebrated her missing the serve, which really began to annoy Andreescu, who was struggling to serve well anyway.
After one of those instances in the final set, the Canadian finally snapped at the fan, yelling at them to 'shut up.' It wasn’t the best look for Andreescu, but her frustration could be understood. It wasn't very pleasant.
The umpire immediately reacted because it’s not really permitted for players to interact with the crowd in that manner, even though she didn’t sanction Andreescu, and it was likely also the umpire's fault that the fan got so comfortable by distracting one of the players.
The umpire quickly called the supervisor, who ultimately sent the security to identify the man. Andreescu refused to play until the fan was removed, and the person was removed in the end.
There are some unwritten rules regarding tennis spectatorship, and if someone is not following those, they can be removed. Being respectful to the players is one of those, and the person in question wasn't very respectful in this case.
Andreescu ended up playing a really close third set, but Kostyuk was still able to win as she won the final-set tie-break.