Jessica Pegula jokes about ‘hot mic’ incident at WTA Finals media day

American tennis star Jessica Pegula wasted little time defusing the tension around the well-documented “hot mic” incident during her appearance with media Friday ahead of the WTA Finals.

As Pegula entered the room and sat down at the front of the press conference, she grabbed the microphone and playfully tapped it and said “OK, the mic’s on. Just wanted to be sure.” Her joke drew a laugh from the assembled media.

Pegula was referencing an incident that happened earlier in the week when a microphone on the practice court that was intended to just pick up ambient noise of tennis balls hitting the hardcourt and environmental sounds for a livestream, actually picked up a conversation between Pegula and one of her coaches during a practice session.

On the live stream she was heard calling another tour player Mirra Andreeva a “diva” among other comments in what she thought was a private discussion.

A spokesperson for Pegula has since reported that Pegula “had absolutely no idea that her conversation with (her coach) was being livestreamed and certainly never expected a private discussion during practice to be made public.” Pegula has since apologized to the other players involved.

For its part, the WTA has taken full responsibility and apologized to Pegula for the incident.

On Friday, WTA Chair Valerie Camillo, who spoke to the media minutes before Pegula did, struck a different tone that Pegula’s light-hearted opener. She was quite serious. She said livestreaming practices is an attempt to bring fans closer to the game and they have done it before, using the similar ambient noise effect, but in this case mistakes were made.

“There were several breakdowns in our execution of the livestream, given our own policies and procedures. There was a lack of advanced notice and clear signage to assist players about the recording equipment operating in the area and it was also not our intention to capture conversations on the livestream of practices but rather to record ambient sound. So clearly there was a failure in our technical execution. As the chair of the WTA I’m committed to leading an organization that delivers the best for our players, our tournaments and our fans. Our execution here did not meet that standard,” she said.

“I want to specifically apologize to Jessica Pegula, what happened was regrettable and unacceptable. Jess is one of the WTA’s best advocates and biggest start and she does not deserve this distraction. One of the primary responsibilities of the WTA is to protect our players whenever possible. ANd that did not happen here. Players deserve better and we will continue to work to raise the bar at the WTA.”

Camillo went on to say that the sound has been disabled now on the practice courts for the rest of this event.

The WTA Finals begins on Sunday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and Pegula will face Coco Gauff in the first match of the round-robin tournament for both players. Defending champion Elena Rybakina will face Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova in the other singles match on Sunday.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Jessica Pegula jokes about ‘hot mic’ incident at WTA Finals media day