Mirra Andreeva is surely making a name for herself and the 2023 Madrid Open is proving to be a breakthrough tournament for her.
In the first round of the 2023 Madrid Open, the 15-year-old, who never experienced a victory on the professional WTA circuit, stunned 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez with a dominant performance. After her success, Andreeva took on world no. 14, Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round of the WTA 1000 competition.
Her Brazilian opponent is currently one of the best players in the world, but Andreeva was ready to take on the challenge. She was broken first in the first set, and after players traded one more break each, Haddad Maia was serving for the first set at 5-4.
But despite not having a lot of experience with big matches like this, Andreeva broke back and she took the first set into a tie-break. The Russian faced a 3-6 deficit in the tie-break, but won five consecutive points to win the first set 8-6 in a tie-break and stun her opponent for the first time.
But that wasn't all from Andreeva. She used the momentum to her advantage and broke Haddad Maia's serve in the first game of the second set. The teenager kept her advantage throughout the set and in the ninth game, she managed to add one more break to win the match 7-6(6), 6-3 and secure a third-round spot at the 2023 Madrid Open.
An incredible achievement for the youngster means that she will have another chance to play a big match in her career, this time taking on the winner of the meeting between the 17th-seeded Magda Linette or Marketa Vondrousova.
Speaking about her game, the 15-year-old prodigy compared herself to two-time Grand Slam finalist from 2022, Ons Jabeur, who climbed to the 2nd place in the WTA Rankings last season.
"You don't have to play fast because I'm pretty good at keeping the fast rhythm and I can compare my game to maybe Ons Jabeur because I change the rhythm a lot, I play with topspin. I do drop shots a lot also and I change the rhythm."
Mirra has also an older sister Erika, who is currently ranked 114th on the WTA Tour, and her younger sister will surely get much closer to her on Monday. Speaking about how her sister influenced her and got her to tennis, Mirra Andreeva said:
"Erika started at 5 or 6, maybe even earlier, and since I'm her younger sister, I was always on the court, maybe since I was 2. I was picking up some balls. But I started pretty late. I started at 6. It's great that teenagers are playing that great now and they have a possibility to play this tournament because IMG helps us. Erika, she also helps me out a lot with advice and she keeps motivating me."
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