16-year-old Mirra Andreeva keeps playing amazing tennis besting former Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova at the 2023 China Open.
Andreeva had to play the qualifiers to get into the main draw because the event was so strong. It didn't prove a problem as she handled it confidently, with the draw giving her Barbora Krejcikova in the first round. It was not an ideal matchup because the Czech player has all the tools to make your life quite miserable, but she hasn't been playing at her peak level for a while.
Occasionally, she'll find that form, but in this match, Krejcikova was far from it, especially as she allowed Andreeva to guide the match to her liking. There are not enough words to explain how special what Andreeva has been doing is. We haven't seen this in a while, even with Coco Gauff's emergence in recent years.
She opened the match with an early break and that set the tone well for the rest of the match. Krejcikova was just a bit too eager at times missing badly, especially in crucial rallies. She had break points in the first set but couldn't convert either and that was an obvious problem.
The second set opened with an early break for Andreeva and she was very confident on her serve rarely encountering any kind of trouble. She's in the pursuit of breaking into the Top 50 and wins like this are a huge step towards that goal.
The final score was 6-2 6-2 for the Russian, who dropped only a handful of points behind her first serve, which is quite impressive considering how attacking of a style Krejcikova plays. She also converted most break points while saving those she faced, indicating total dominance in crucial rallies, which again is impressive, the Russian just keeps proving her qualities.
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