Mirra Andreeva mocks French Open crowd before awkward on-court U-turn

Mirra Andreeva found herself in hot water with French Open fans after her cheeky comment about rooting against PSG in the Champions League final, only to quickly row back on her words. The No. 6 seed sailed through Yulia Putintseva with a swift 6-3, 6-1 victory, on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, leaving ample time to catch the evening's soccer match.

Some players had even jokingly called on French Open organizers to postpone Saturday's matches due to the game. Gael Monfils exited the tournament early this week, opening up for him to attend or watch the game.

Andreeva's entourage had donned PSG jerseys, joining in on the pre-final excitement, but the Russian youngster admitted her lack of interest in soccer was met with an awkward hush when she mentioned backing Inter Milan instead. Marion Bartoli, the ex-Wimbledon titleholder, was conducting Andreeva's on-court interview when she noticed the PSG show of support.

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"Is that a message? Are you supporting one club tonight? Are you watching, first of all?" Bartoli inquired, to which Andreeva replied, somewhat mischievously disappointing the local supporters: "I'll be honest, I don't follow football. But I guess that if he came with a Paris jersey maybe I'm going to cheer against the Paris today!"

Realizing the Lenglen crowd's disapproval and receiving Bartoli's light-hearted chiding, Andreeva quickly corrected herself.

Andreeva hurriedly backpedaled: "No, I'm joking. I'm not going to say that in Paris. Maybe I'm going to watch a little bit. If he chose to support Paris I think it's a good team so maybe I'm going to watch a little bit tonight."

After reaching the semi-final here 12 months ago and upsetting Aryna Sabalenka en route, Andreeva has advanced to the second week to face No. 17 seed Daria Kasatkina.

However, she faced a challenge against the crafty Kazakh Putintseva on Saturday morning and acknowledged the difficulty in adapting to her opponent's style of play.

"Of course I know that Yulia, she's a very tricky player. She plays very interesting and it's a little uncomfortable for me," Andreeva remarked. "She likes to cut the rhythm a lot and I struggled with it especially in the beginning so I knew that this match would be tough.

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"I practised with her once I think so I knew what to expect but practice is completely different from the match so I just knew that I had to play 100 per cent and fight for every ball and try to get those drop shots."

Andreeva overcame the hurdle and now moves on to the round of 16, with the option to tune into the Champions League final if she chooses. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic won't have the chance to watch PSG vs Inter Milan as he's scheduled for the night session on Court Philippe-Chatrier, despite expressing his desire to follow the match.

Two days prior, he mentioned: "It's going to be PSG that I will support. I will definitely watch it if I'm not playing night session. Yeah, that will be nice. FYI, Roland Garros schedule..." Yet, Djokovic is set to take on qualifier Filip Misolic just 45 minutes before the game begins.