Russian tennis player Maria Timofeeva, 20, reveals thieves stole “more than €10,000” from her bank account and left her “panicked” while she was in Madrid to take part in a WTA event.

Russian tennis player Maria Timofeeva revealed on social media that she was “freaked out” after having €10,000 (£8,576) stolen from her bank account while in Madrid.

The 20-year-old, who is 99th in the WTA world rankings, was trying to qualify for the WTA1000 Mutua Madrid Open this week. In her opening match, she had a straight sets victory against Fiona Ferro, but was eliminated by British star Harriet Dart in the second round.

Timofeeva, who won her first WTA Tour singles title in Budapest last year, revealed her confusion over how the money was stolen, admitting her debit card “had been with her during the most of his stay in the Spanish capital. She also claimed that this was not the first time she had been robbed while in Spain.

“Hello everyone, this is Maria Timofeeva. And here I am back in Spain six months later and I was robbed here again,” the tennis player said in a video posted to her Instagram story on Thursday evening.

“So I’d like to share my story and I really could use some advice from people who might have been in a similar situation before and explain how this could happen.

“So apparently in the last few days (while) I’ve been here in Madrid, someone has spent money from my bank account and spent almost just over €10,000 (£8,576).

“I’m panicking because I don’t know how this could have happened because physically my card was with me most of the time – except for one episode where I left it in my room while the room was cleaned by the housekeepers of the hotel in which I am staying.

Timofeeva posted a video on her Instagram story, asking her followers for advice

The Russian tennis player currently sits at 99th place in the WTA rankings and won her first title last year.

Timofeeva then explained that the money was spent in the area near her home, while asking her Instagram followers to share any tips they might have on the matter.

“The purchases were made in Spain, in Madrid, in this area,” she added. “Normally for online purchase you need a confirmation code which normally comes to my phone which is not the case.

“Yeah, I don’t know, the circumstances are crazy and I don’t know how this could happen, so please share something and be aware of the people in Spain and these situations because it happens every time I come here and it gets out of hand So yeah, thanks I guess.

Timofeeva, from Moscow, had a strong start to the 2024 season, qualifying for the Australian Open before battling against Alize Cornet, Croline Wozniacki and Beatriz Haddid Maia to reach the round of 16 at the Grand Slam.

This is her best ranking ever in one of the major tournaments, the 20-year-old having suffered a defeat against Urainian player Marta Kostyuk.

Timofeeva failed to qualify for Wimbledon and the US Open in 2023. This happened after Russian and Belarusian players were banned from competing at Wimbledon in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. They were then allowed to compete as neutrals by the AELTC last year – with Wimbledon being the only Grand Slam to exclude players from both countries.

After posting the video on Instagram, she followed up with a separate story, clarifying several points, before revealing again that she would be filing a police report regarding the incident.

Timofeeva was playing at the WTA1000 Mutua Madrid Open when the incident happened

Timofeeva (pictured in Paris) admitted confusion over how the money was withdrawn from her account

She also sent a separate message, saying she would contact the police.

The Russian tennis player failed to qualify for the Madrid Open and suffered a defeat against Harriet Dart.

She had a good start to the season, reaching the round of 16 at the Australian Open.

“Just to clear some things up,” she wrote. ‘1. I haven’t received any SMS about the money spent on my account because the SIM card connected to the bank is not my main one, so I only installed it today.

‘2. My card is debit and my bank has very limited communication options so they didn’t contact me as well until €10,000 was spent in one day and they blocked the card. So for now I have only been able to send them an email and hope they can refund the money.

‘3. I didn’t use any vending machines during my stay here and the only place I used a card reader was the official tournament hotel while I was paying for my coach’s room.

‘4. Physically the card was with me and for online purchases these fraudsters would need its details and a conformation code, so the main question is how on earth did they do it,” she added with a laughing face emoji.

She then thanked her Instagram followers for responding to her post, before also writing: “Tomorrow (I) will write a report to the police and keep you posted.”