Mirra Andreeva returned to clay at the 2024 Rouen Open and finally won a tennis match again, her first in three months.
The 16-year-old broke out last year in a tremendous fashion, establishing herself as one of the best players in the world. She played really well, particularly on clay, but didn't quite find the same level this year. Her start in 2024 has been shaky, as her last win before this match was back in January at the Australian Open.
To be fair, she hasn't played too many events since then but finally won again, and that's the most important thing. She faced a pretty solid clay player in Nadia Podoroska, who has played really solid tennis lately. They actually played last year, and Andreeva won that match easily in two sets.
This one wasn't that different because the Russian won in two sets again, and neither was particularly close. There is just something in the matchup that is not working for Podoroska, and in fairness, Andreeva can be super solid and hit the corners nicely and consistently.
It's pretty tough to counter that, and Podoroska didn't do it in the opening set. It was a pretty strong and convincing set by the Russian, who won it 6-1 in 37 minutes. The second set was a bit more competitive as Podoroska was actually able to break the Russian this time around.
Andreeva took a 4-2 lead but then lost her serve to make it 4-3. She would then break once more and finally finish it off 6-3 for her first win in three months. We'll see how far she can go, but it's good to see her back on the winning side after some struggles.
Being back on clay which is the surface where she has played the best so far in her career certainly helped.
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