The Russian derby at Wimbledon was won by the 16-year rising star Mirra Andreeva who convincingly beat Anastasia Potapova.
Is Andreeva WTA's next superstar? Well, it certainly looks like that as the 16-year-old is proving that her breakout as a 15-year was no mistake. A few months ago Andreeva won some matches at the Madrid Open before turning 16 and many were left impressed with her level.
After turning 16, the rising start continued playing well cruising through the Roland Garros qualifiers. She won a couple of main draw matches but eventually lost to another tennis phenom Coco Gauff.
Her first tango at Wimbledon is certainly proving equally fruitful for the youngster. She cruised through the qualifiers without many issues even if this was her first major experience on grass.
In the main draw, Andreeva continued to play spectacular tennis and she produced another great effort to take down a very good Potapova who was number 7 in the wins leaderboard before this match. Even so, Potapova ran into a literal wall as Andreeva got so many balls back that the older Russian simply flamed out trying to figure it out.
The opening set saw Potapova struggle tremendously not being able to find any kind of solutions. She didn't serve well and just sailed balls wide all the time ending the set with 16 unforced errors in 8 games. Two errors per game were simply too much against the super-quick Andreeva who would get every ball back, it didn't really matter how strong Potapova hit it.
The youngster entered the second set with an early break but Potapova finally managed to string together some good shots. She turned things around taking a 4-1 lead but Andreeva managed to pull back with some smart play.
The young Russian doesn't rely that much on power at her early age but rather on some precise angles and generally very tactical tennis. That's impressive for a player so young and it allowed her to completely turn around this match against Potapova who never found good solutions. She was in the simplest of terms, outsmarted by Andreeva.
The final score was 6-2 7-5 for Andreeva who had 16 winners and 23 unforced errors. Potapova had a rather ugly line of 23 winners and 43 unforced errors. Up next is Madison Keys who recently triumphed in Eastbourne.
0 Comments