Tennis prodigy Mirra Andreeva returned to the courts this week, and she's already through to the quarter-final of the 2024 Rouen Open.
The Russian hadn't played in a while and actually hadn't won a match since January. It's not the type of year she expected to have, especially after she played pretty well in the Middle Eastearn exhibitions leading up to the season.
However, being back on clay is good for her because her major breakout came on that surface. It's arguably her best surface, and she showed all of her talent in the previous match, where she outplayed Nadia Podoroska in two sets.
Podoroska is a former Roland Garros semi-finalist, so she is certainly not a player unfamiliar with clay, but it didn't matter. The teenager was too strong. The same thing happened in her second match, although the match was a bit closer than the one in the previous round.
She was facing a solid compatriot, Elina Avanesyan, who can play really well on clay, especially as she's a pretty good hitter. It took Andreeva a very long time to finally break through.
The 16-year-old broke midway through the opening set but lost her serve in the next game. Eventually, she broke again and, this time around, held her serve to win it 7-5. This was hugely important for Andreeva because everything became easier after that.
The second set immediately opened with the break, but Avanesyan wasn't going to give up that easily. She broke back midway through, but then Andreeva once again got in front, and this time around, she was able to keep it until the end, winning 7-5, 6-4.
It was another really solid outing from the Russian as she moves into the quarter-final in Rouen, which is a pretty important result for her. She needed a confidence-boosting run like this one, and she's getting it done this week.
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