Andy Roddick showered tennis prodigy Mirra Andreeva with high praise during a recent episode on his eponymous podcast.
Andreeva, who celebrated her 17th birthday very recently by reaching the Madrid Open quarterfinal, has been compared to some tennis legends of the past.
She has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the last 12 months, emerging from being a virtually unknown youngster to becoming one of the most promising tennis talents on tour.
Last year, on her WTA 1000 debut in Madrid, she notched a trio of high-quality wins over Leylah Fernandez, Magda Linette, and Beatriz Haddad Maia. Exactly a year later, she returned and took the tournament by storm again.
But just like the last edition, Aryna Sabalenka stood in her path. Andreeva has since played at the Italian Open, where she lost a one-sided first-round match to Paula Badosa.
At this stage of her career, Andreeva is far from a finished article, although her rapid improvement has caught Roddick's attention. The former ATP World No. 1 placed the young Russian in the same breath as some tennis legends who had a highly successful teenage career when they shot to prominence.
"Mirra Andreeva is a rockstar, just turned 17… Normally when someone is 16 or 17, you see… When Serena was, 17 it was like overwhelming power, it’s obvious what her superpower is. Rafa, when he was 17, it looked like he could bench-press dump trucks, Boris Becker, oh he has the biggest serve we’ve ever seen."
The American then drew parallels between Andreeva and current men's World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Roddick believes that the 17-year-old's point construction and skillset are similar to the Serbian.
"So at 17, it’s like they learn nuance but they open with their massive skillset, Andreeva kind of plays a nuanced game at 17. Her comp [composure] is almost kind of Novak in a weird way."
"I’m not saying she’s Novak, I’m saying the way that she wins her points is in a similar fashion to Novak. She’s a magician at switching directions. She doesn’t let someone get set to hit the same ball twice."
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