Dozens of names might have come up within the WTA’s season-opening social media video.
Who will attain her first main closing in 2025? Who will make her top-10 debut? Who will win her first 1000-level event?
However there was one identify stated time and again by the gamers featured all through the clip: Mirra Andreeva.
Three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur named her a number of occasions. “All the things is Mirra,” she stated.
Even Andreeva, 17, could not assist however purchase into her personal hype: “I need to say myself,” she stated with a smile, on who would win their first 1000-level occasion. “I’ll do every thing potential for that.”
Some seven weeks later, Andreeva made good on her audacious prediction. She gained the trophy in Dubai and have become the youngest participant to win an 1000-level title — essentially the most prestigious after a Slam and the year-end WTA Finals. She then cracked the highest 10 and reached a career-high of No. 9.
And the Russian teenager’s momentum has but to sluggish. On Tuesday, Andreeva grew to become the youngest participant since 2009 to succeed in the quarterfinals on the 1000-level BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in simply over an hour.
“That is precisely the place I wished to be however I did not suppose that it might occur this rapidly,” Andreeva advised ESPN final week from the participant’s lounge at Indian Wells. “Final 12 months I performed right here and I misplaced within the first spherical, then I had some well being issues and I needed to retire from Miami and I did not suppose {that a} 12 months after I’d have the ability to win the largest title of my profession … Once I realized I gained [in Dubai], I used to be like, ‘Hell yeah.’
“Once I was doing the press convention [after winning] they usually advised me I used to be already within the high 10, I am like, ‘Actually?’ As a result of that had been a objective for this 12 months however I did not suppose I’d attain it till October or November, finish of the 12 months, nevertheless it was February and I am already within the high 10. I am like, ‘Properly, I suppose I’ve to consider some new targets now.'”
Whereas Andreeva stated the questions on her new targets have been infinite since her triumph in Dubai, it is nothing new. Neither is the reward or daring beliefs about her future. Andreeva confirmed she might compete with one of the best on the earth in certainly one of her very first WTA occasions.
Having obtained a wild card to the 1000-level Madrid Open in 2023, a 15-year-old Andreeva shocked the tennis world with a staggering run to the fourth spherical behind victories over Leylah Fernandez, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Magda Linette, claiming numerous “youngest ever” distinctions alongside the best way. Behind her fearless on-court performances and her equally charming tv interviews, Andreeva had formally launched herself to the tennis world. The comparisons to different younger phenoms — together with Coco Gauff, then 19 — had been quick.
And she or he rapidly proved the Madrid run was no fluke by reaching the third spherical on the French Open (dropping to eventual finalist Gauff in three units) and changing into the youngest participant since Gauff to notch a fourth-round look at Wimbledon. By the top of the season, she had made it into the highest 50. The expectations had been excessive and the highlight was vivid however Andreeva was unfazed.
“After all, it is good when individuals speak about you and naturally it is not good once they discuss probably not great things, however it’s what it’s,” Andreeva stated. “You are going to get some great things and a few dangerous stuff on the identical time. So that you simply need to know that and it is simply going to occur whether or not you need it or not.”
Andreeva took it to a different degree in 2024, along with her first main semifinals on the French Open, her first WTA title on the Iasi Open in July and an Olympic silver medal in doubles alongside Diana Shnaider as impartial athletes. She was ranked No. 16 by 12 months’s finish.
She began working with former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martínez final season, and the 2 crafted a plan through the preseason of how Andreeva might proceed her surge and attain the highest 10 in 2025. Whereas Andreeva was not far-off, she would wish to copy a lot of her success within the new season with a view to do it. A tall order with so many proficient girls vying for titles and rating factors each week.
However Andreeva wasted no time. Within the first event of the 12 months in Brisbane, she reached the semifinals in singles and gained the doubles title with Shnaider. There was a fourth-round look on the Australian Open, and semifinal doubles runs in each Melbourne and Qatar.
In Dubai, the place she solely performed singles as a result of she and Shnaider inadvertently and comically missed the sign-in deadline, Andreeva put collectively her most spectacular run. She defeated three main champions — Marketa Vondrousova within the Spherical of 32, Iga Swiatek within the quarterfinals and Rybakina within the semifinals — en path to the ultimate. With the title on the road, she escaped a difficult opening set and secured the victory over Clara Tauson, 7-6 (1), 6-1.
“At first, it was all adrenaline after which I felt a little bit bit like I used to be in euphoria, it was simply not actual,” Andreeva advised ESPN. “However then I spotted that I gained the freaking event and I simply cherished the moments with my staff.”
Andreeva then went viral for shouting herself out in her victory speech on court docket. “Lastly, I need to thank me for by no means quitting and all the time believing in myself,” she advised the gang.
Thank your self for the way far you’ve got come 💜#DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/lwe2QuQ08x
— wta (@WTA) February 22, 2025
The staff, which included Martinez, went out for dinner afterwards to rejoice. Andreeva and Martinez talked about every thing — from Andreeva’s emotions all through the match to how nervous they each had felt (however did not need to present) and to how proud Martinez was of her younger pupil. After which Andreeva bought again to work. Whereas she knew Dubai was a milestone achievement, she did not need to make too huge of a deal of it.
“Once I was a child and touring with my mother and father, each time I’d win a event, we’d rejoice by going out to dinner and I’d get to drink a soda,” Andreeva stated. “Then and now, I do know that I can rejoice for one, perhaps two, days after which I’ve to get again to follow and put together for the following event. I feel that is why all of us love tennis, [no matter if] you win a event otherwise you lose a event, there’s all the time subsequent week and a brand new alternative to win a event.”
After her win in Indian Wells over Rybakina, the event’s 2023 champion, Andreeva has now gained her final 9 matches and is 16-3 on the season to this point. She has impressed a lot of her friends alongside the best way.
“It is unbelievable what she’s been capable of do at such a younger age,” world No. 4 Jessica Pegula stated final week. “I feel she’s gonna win lots of tournaments and lots of matches for the following ten years … She’s pretty tall however strikes rather well. I feel she has a very good serve for somebody at such a younger age. I feel her court docket sense, capacity to compete. A whole lot of issues. A whole lot of issues you may’t educate are already actually robust and he or she’s solely going to get higher.”
Andreeva, who will flip 18 in April, will subsequent face Elina Svitolina, the No. 23 seed from Ukraine, on Thursday with an opportunity to succeed in her first semifinals at Indian Wells. For Andreeva, it will likely be a full circle second as a result of Svitolina was one of many first WTA gamers she watched in particular person, in a Spherical of 16 match versus Simona Halep on the 2021 US Open. The expertise modified every thing for Andreeva.
“I used to be watching their match and I used to be, like, ‘Sure, I’ll play right here someday,'” she advised reporters on Tuesday. “[I thought] ‘Okay, I do not know with who, however I’ll play on this stadium.’ And I feel they performed on — what’s it? — Louis Armstrong Stadium. So I used to be, like, ‘Sure, I’ll play right here.'”
It will likely be the primary assembly between Svitolina and Andreeva. As a result of Svitolina has refused to shake palms with Russian gamers because the invasion of Ukraine three years in the past, Andreeva was requested about it on Tuesday. “Yeah, in fact it is not straightforward, however, , I’ve performed perhaps 4 or 5 matches towards Ukrainian gamers,” she stated. “And me, I simply strive not to consider it. I simply attempt to give attention to my recreation, to do my routines, to arrange myself that it is not going to be straightforward.”
Calling Svitolina a “fighter,” Andreeva stated she would belief in Martinez to arrange her absolutely for the match and the “small particulars” she would wish to win. After ending her match later within the night on Tuesday, Andreeva was joyful to have Wednesday to get well and have a while to chill out at her lodge.
She had stated earlier than the event started that she hoped to have a while to go to the close by outlet shops, along with doing her schoolwork. She’s just some months away from finishing her highschool coursework on-line however first should cross exams in her remaining 4 courses — math, geography, after which her two “best ones” Russian and English — to graduate. She stated she was barely nervous about it, however was thrilled to be virtually completed.
Her subsequent objective on the tennis court docket? To succeed in the highest 5, however Andreeva stated that was primarily as a result of it was the very first thing she might consider. If she had been to win Indian Wells, she would doubtless be proper exterior of that, and it will likely be in hanging distance over the following few months no matter if she wins the title or not. Past that, she’s unsure however is happy to determine it out.
“Oh God, really I did not take into consideration [anything past this season],” she stated. “I feel each tennis participant needs to win as many tournaments [as possible], to have many Slams, to be No. 1. However I additionally need to be remembered as an incredible tennis participant, as an individual who all the time fights and by no means offers up. However I do not even know what I need to be and the place I need to be in 5 years. That feels so far-off.
“I am simply [taking it] one week at a time proper now.”