Mirra Andreeva has made immense progress on the women's circuit since she burst onto the scene in the first half of last season, and she is now set to reach a career-high ranking.
Andreeva defeated home crowd favorite Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 6-2 on Monday on Court Suzanne Lenglen. She converted five of nine break points en route to victory and became the last woman to punch her ticket into the quarterfinal at the 2024 Roland Garros.
The 17-year-old made her full Grand Slam senior debut at last year's French Open, where she navigated the qualifying rounds to reach the main draw. Andreeva registered her first win at a major when she beat Alison Riske in the first round in Paris.
She would follow up that upset win by beating Diane Parry to reach the third round. There, she met Coco Gauff, a fellow teenager at the time, and lost in straight sets.
But the young Russian's rapid rise to the top of women's sport gathered pace in months after that French Open run. Andreeva made the second week at Wimbledon as a qualifier, earning shock wins over Barbora Krejcikova (via retirement) and Anastasia Potapova.
She would lose to Madison Keys in the fourth round. Having started 2023 outside the world's Top 200, Andreeva broke the Top 50 for the first time in early October after reaching the last 16 of the China Open.
This season, the 17-year-old has continued that good work by appointing former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez as her coach on a trial basis.
That decision has yielded a full circle moment 12 months after her exploits at Roland Garros. On Wednesday, Andreeva will contest a maiden quarterfinal at Grand Slam level against World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka with nothing to lose.
She is assured a new career-high ranking next Monday, breaking the world's Top 30 (up to 30th in the live rankings), and could even become a Top 20 player depending on whether she will progress further in the tournament.
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