“It’s so tough to see that, the emotion after such a difficult defeat on Centre Court,” former World No.4 Henman told presenter Clare Balding during the BBC’s live coverage. “You can see how much it means to her… Roland Garros was just incredible. She’s an amazing talent. We’ve been, hoping, expecting her to come through with a Grand Slam victory. She was able to achieve that and then three weeks later it’s that bitter disappointment.”
Henman then addressed the Championship’s media responsibilities, whereby players are put in front of the press even after painful losses like these. “It’s so difficult to see when she’s so young, in front of the cameras,” he added.
“On the one hand I think it’s a great strength of our sport that we have a commitment to speak to the media. If you are requested after the match then you do your press conference and I think that is a great strength.
“However when you see something like that it’s very difficult to watch and you wonder whether perhaps she could have taken a little bit more time to gather her emotions. Because no one wants to see a young player crying in front of the media.”
Andreeva was visibly frustrated during her match, at one stage throwing her racket in anger. She said she would need time to process the loss before starting to cry, eventually continuing despite being told she could take a moment to compose herself.
“It’s going to take some time, maybe a couple of days, and then I’m going to be back to practice for hard courts,” she said. “I don’t know what my next tournaments are going to be. I still need to talk to my team to see where I’m going to play next.”
After beating Andreeva, Krejcikova will face Nikola Bartunkova in the third round. This is already a best-ever Wimbledon run for 20-year-old Bartunkova, who knocked out 32nd seed Katerina Siniakova in straight sets on Wednesday.