Teen prodigy, Russia, Murray, Olympic medallist: Everything you always wanted to know about Mirra Andreeva (but never had time to find out) – updated after 2024 Ningbo Open final
A former junior world No 1, Mirra Andreeva is the latest teen to make a splash on the professional women’s tour and is already an Olympic medallist
Mirra Andreeva during her third round match at Wimbledon 2023
Who is Mirra Andreeva?
Mirra Andreeva is a professional tennis player who competes on the WTA Tour. She was born on April 29, 2007 and she won her first WTA Tour title in Romania in July, 2024.
What did Mirra Andreeva achieve at the 2024 Ningbo Open?
Andreeva reached her second career WTA singles final at the 2024 Ningbo Open in October 2024. The 17-year-old advanced to the final when Karolina Muchova retired from their semi-final clash while trailing 6-2, 1-0.
In the final, Andreeva went down to countrywoman and fifth seed Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 4-6, 6-4. The teenager led 3-0 in the final set before her more experienced opponent fought back to win the title. The 17-year-old broke down in tears during the trophy presentation but was comforted by Kasatkina.
What did Mirra Andreeva accomplish at the 2024 Paris Olympics?
Playing in her first Olympics, Andreeva partnered with Diana Shnaider to reach the women’s doubles final. The pair lost 6-2, 1-6, 10-7 to Italy’s Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani in the final, but secured a well-earned silver medal.
At 17, Andreeva is the youngest player to win a tennis Olympic medal of any colour since Jennifer Capriati won the singles gold at the Barcelona Games in 1992.
WhAT DID Mirra Andreeva ACHIEVE AT ROLAND-GARROS in 2024?
Andreeva reached the semi-finals of a major for the first time in her career by upsetting world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka in the quarters.
At 17 years and 37 days old, the Russian became the youngest women’s singles Grand Slam semi-finalist since Martina Hingis at the 1997 US Open. She is the the youngest to do so at Roland-Garros also since Hingis in ’97.
Andreeva lost to Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-1 in the semis.
How many WTA Tour titles has Mirra Andreeva won?
One. The Russian won her first WTA Tour title in the Iasi Open, in Romania, in July 2024. Andreeva was leading Elina Avenasyan 4-0 in the final set when her opponent retired. She has also won six titles on the ITF Tour.
What is Mirra Andreeva’s highest ranking?
Andreeva’s highest ranking is No 17, which she achieved on October 21, 2024. You can find her latest ranking and her rankings history on her WTA Tour profile page.
WHAT IS MIRRA ANDREEVA’S PLAYING STYLE?
Things could change as Andreeva continues to grow, get stronger and gain more power — but right now she is an all-court player who is content to play long rallies with lots of variety and improvisation.
“When I play a match, I don’t have any thoughts in my head,” she said at Roland-Garros in 2024. “So maybe I would say that my strength could be that I just play how I want to play and I do whatever I want to do, and maybe this helps me when I play.
“I play shot to shot mostly (as opposed to point to point). So when, for example, [my opponent] plays a forehand crosscourt, I have time to see where she’s standing, where she kind of waits for my ball to go, and then I decide, ‘well, what should I do? Should I go down the line or should I do cross, should I do a dropshot, should I do a lob?’ That’s sometimes not really good because I have a lot of decisions in my mind. When I change them in the last moment, always some kind of crap happens.
“I’m trying to keep it simple sometimes, but I cannot help it. Sometimes I just have too many decisions in my head.”
what did MIRRA ANDREEVA do at the 2024 Madrid open?
Mirra Andreeva reached the quarter-finals of the 2024 Madrid Open for the first time, bettering her excellent debut run at the tournament the year before (where she reached the last 16).
En route to the last eight, Andreeva beat Townsend, Noskova, Vondrousova and Paolini before falling to defending champion Aryna Sabalenka – who was also Andreeva’s conqueror in 2023 – in the quarter-finals.
Despite an excellent showing in the Spanish capital, Andreeva could not replicate the performance in the differing conditions of the Italian Open in the following week, where she lost to Paula Badosa in the first round.
What did Mirra Andreeva accomplish at the Australian Open in 2024?
One year after finishing as runner-up at the Australian Open juniors singles event, Mirra Andreeva reached the fourth round of the 2024 Australian Open in her first appearance in the women’s singles draw in Melbourne, losing to Barbora Krejcikova in three sets.
After beating Bernarda Pera in the first round, the 16-year-old blitzed past sixth seed Ons Jabeur 6-0, 6-2 in the second round and then came from 5-1 down in the final set against Diane Parry in the third round to win 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-5) to move into the last 16.
This was the second time that Andreeva has reached the fourth round at a Grand Slam, following Wimbledon in 2023.
What did Mirra Andreeva achieve at Wimbledon 2023?
Andreeva, still 16, won three matches in the qualifying draw and then three in the Wimbledon main draw to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. The Russian defeated China’s Xiyu Wang 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in the first round, then scored the best win of her career, in terms of ranking, by beating 10th seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 4-0 (retd.), and then upset 22nd seed Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5 in the third round.
Andreeva, who became the youngest player to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon since Coco Gauff in 2019, went down to Madison Keys in three sets in the fourth round.
In the final Grand Slam of the year at the US Open, Andreeva received direct entry to the tournament by way of her ranking. After winning her first-round match, coming from a set down to beat Australian Gadecki for her first win at Flushing Meadows, she then lost a one-sided match to Coco Gauff, 6-3 6-2. It was Andreeva’s first appearance on a Grand Slam showcourt.
Which country is Andreeva from?
Andreeva was born in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Due to the current Russia-Ukraine war, she plays under a neutral flag on the WTA Tour as Russian and Belarusian players are not allowed to represent their countries on the tour.
What did Andreeva achieve in Madrid 2023?
Still aged 15, Andreeva received a main draw wildcard at the WTA Madrid Open in 2023. She won her first round match against former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez to become the third youngest player to win a main draw match at a WTA 1000 event (only Coco Gauff and CiCi Bellis ere younger). She also became the second 15-year-old to beat a Top 50 player at a WTA 1000 event (Bellis was the first one).
In the second round, Andreeva scored her first top 20 win and upset 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia to become the seventh youngest player since 2000 to defeat a Top 20 player before the age of 16.
Andreeva’s run continued with her third win in a row in Madrid to beat 17th seed Magda Linette to reach the last 16. Her run came to an end in the last 16 to world No 2 and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.
Was Mirra Andreeva a good junior?
Andreeva became the top-ranked junior in the world (on May 29, 2023). She reached the final of the Australian Open girls singles event where she lost to Alina Korneeva 6-7, 6-4, 7-5.
She has also won three ITF junior titles, the biggest one being the J2 Vigo event in 2021. As of July 2023, her last event on the junior circuit was the ITF J500 in Cairo, Egypt in February 2023 where she finished as runner-up.
What did Andreeva achieve at Roland-Garros 2023?
The Russian played a Grand Slam at the WTA level for the first time at Roland-Garros in May 2023. The 16-year-old won three matches in qualifying to book her spot in the main draw and become the youngest qualifier in Paris since Amelie Mauresmo (15 years, 10 months) did the same in 1995. She beat Alison Riske-Amritraj in the first round, then Diane Parry in the second round, before losing to Coco Gauff in the third round, 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1.
Does Mirra Andreeva have a sister who also plays tennis?
Yes. Mirra’s elder sister is Erika Andreeva, who is also a professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No 65 in the world (October 2024)
Erika also reached a Slam final as a junior, finishing runner-up at the 2021 French Open in the girl’s singles event.
Who leads the head-to-head between the Andreeva sisters?
On the WTA Tour, the Andreeva sisters have met only once so far – in the second round of the 2024 Wuhan Open. Erika, the older of the two sisters, won that clash 6-3, 6-1.
WHO IS MIRRA ANDREEVA’s COACH?
As of October 2024, her coach is Conchita Martinez. The Spaniard won Wimbledon in 1994 and reached a career high of No 2 in the world.
Martinez went to Cannes, France, where Andreeva lives, starting in the spring of 2024. Martinez still lives and Spain and has encouraged Andreeva to train there, but so far their training has been done in France.
How much prize money has she won in her career?
As of October 21, 2024, Andreeva has won $2.7 million in career prize money. You can find her latest prize money stats on her WTA Tour profile page.
What did Mirra Andreeva say about Andy Murray?
During her run at the 2023 Madrid Open, Andreeva gushed about Andy Murray during an interview, calling him ‘beautiful’ and ‘amazing’.
“The atmosphere is so special. You take a lunch with all this stars, let’s say. You see Andy Murray… you see his face and he’s so beautiful in life. He’s so amazing,” the teenager said.
During Wimbledon in 2023, Andreeva confirmed that she had said hi to Murray during the tournament but added that she usually leaves the faciltiy when he is around because she is just too shy.
“I met Andy Murray here,” the teenager said after her second round win at the All England Club. “But I’m too shy to talk to him. When I see him, I try to leave the facility super quick just to not to talk to him because I’m super shy!”
IS MIRRA ANDREEVA A TENNIS FAN IN ADDITION TO BEING A PLAYER?
Yes, when Andreeva isn’t playing a match or practicing she is often watching tennis.
“I watch a lot of tennis,” she said at Roland-Garros in 2024. “Even when I finish a day, for example, when I played against Vika, we finished at 2:00 am; I got to the hotel room at 3:00 and I still saw some reels on Instagram about tennis. I was like, ‘who is winning, who won, who lost? So I’m always trying to see the results and see some highlights of some matches.
“So I don’t think there was a day without tennis for me since I started playing. I can say that I always watch some tennis.”
What are Mirra Andreeva’s ambitions in tennis?
At Roland-Garros in 2023, she said her ambition was to win 25 Grand Slams!!
Is Mirra Andreeva on social media?
The Russian is active on Instagram, where she has more than 269,000 followers, as of October 21, 2024. She also has a Facebook page, where she is currently followed by more than 20,000 people.
