2023-04-29 00:51:59
Mirra Andreeva is one of the names that is attracting the most attention in this edition of the Mutua Madrid Open. His age is surprising -just today he turns 16-, but also the game he is playing on the court. The tournament offered her one of the invites to the final draw, and the Russian is making the most of it. In the first round, she beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez, finalist at the 2021 US Open, and in the second, Brazilian Beatriz Haddad-Maia, seed number 13. Today she intends to go one step further and focuses all her attention on beating the Polish Magda Linette, who is almost twice her age (31 years), and qualify for the eighth.
«I am extremely happy. I am very happy to get through two rounds and beat Leylah, because she is one of the players I like to watch the most », Andreeva admits to ABC Daily. The young Russian says she is surprised to have qualified for the third round: «We will see how far I get. Nobody knows”. She will do her best to put the roof as far as possible.
Actually, the tennis player arrived at the Mutua Madrid Open with an invitation only for the previous phase. However, a few days later she was called to inform her that she was also included in the main draw. She «She really wanted to be in this tournament; this is my first WTA 1,000. I’m very grateful. In addition, Madrid is a very beautiful city.
Andreeva played her first WTA 250 in October 2022, in Tunisia. Shortly after, she surprised herself by reaching the final of the junior Australian Open, where she lost to compatriot Alina Korneeva, another equally precocious tennis player. Madrid is one more leap in a career that is expected to be meteoric.
The keys to success
“Fight for every ball and always try to play the best game,” Andreeva reasons about the keys that explain her triumphs. “Everyone tells me that the level is not that spectacular, that they are just more consistent than me,” she also explains about the method that her environment has to shake off the pressure.
Andreeva assures that “hunger” moves her tennis, and that her ambition has no limits. “The Grand Slams, especially Roland Garros, are the tournaments of my dreams,” laughs the tennis player. “Last year I played in the junior category and this year I have the opportunity to reach the main draw through the qualifying phase.”
Among its great references in the world of tennis are Ons Jabeur, champion of the Mutua Madrid Open in the last edition, and the Kazakh Elena Rybakina. «From Elena I admire her mentality. She is never nervous, her face hardly changes during the match,” she adds.
Today he will blow out the candles while he continues in search of new precocity records. Advised and supervised by her mother, in Madrid she is also accompanied by her older sister Erika, with whom she is disputing the doubles draw.
Other early records on the women’s circuit
Mirra Andreeva follows in the wake of other tennis players who also broke precociousness records. Martina Hingis remains the youngest tennis player to occupy the top spot in the WTA ranking and also to win a Grand Slam, the 1997 Australian Open, at 16 years and 177 days.
Tracy Austin, for her part, is the youngest tennis player to win a title on the women’s circuit. She did it in Portland, in 1977, at the age of 14 years and 28 days. She narrowly surpasses Kathy Rinaldi, who won the 1981 Kyoto tournament at 14 years, 6 months, and 24 days, five days less than Jennifer Capriati at Puerto Rico 1990.
Meanwhile, the American Monica Seles is the tennis player with the most Grand Slam titles -eight- before reaching the age of twenty.
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