Mirra Andreeva effectively started at the WTA tournament in Lausanne

Russian Mirra Andreeva, the youngest tennis player in the world’s top 100, played her first match as a seeded tennis player at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments. At the Ladies Open Lausanne in Switzerland, a 250 category tournament with a prize pool of $260,000, she defeated Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the first round, not allowing her to even take her serve.

The speed of Mirra Andreeva’s progress cannot but impress. Three months ago, the 16-year-old Russian woman was in the world rankings at the very bottom of the second hundred and could get into the main draws of WTA tournaments only through qualification or thanks to a wild card, and now, having taken part in only four competitions, she has already entered the number of “seeded” at the Ladies Open Lausanne for the first time. This category 250 tournament has the status of the Swiss Open, has been held in various cities for 55 years, and moved to Lausanne four years ago. Its winners include former American No. 1 Chris Evert and Lynsey Daveport and several other members of the world’s elite.

During the “seeding”, which was headed by the 41st racket of the world, Romanian Irina-Camellia Begu, who withdrew after the draw for medical reasons, Andreeva (64th in the world) received the sixth number. And as a rival at the start, she got 23-year-old Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, who a few years ago was very noticeable and won three WTA titles, but then slowed down and currently occupies only 145th place in the ranking. The current quality of Yastremskaya’s game leaves much to be desired, so Andreeva’s chances were quoted higher, and the meeting turned out to be, to put it mildly, not very difficult for her. In the first game, the Russian woman did not give up a single game, and in the second she did not allow Yastremskaya to win at least one game on her serve and eventually won in 1 hour 5 minutes – 6:0, 6:2.

Judging by the composition of the Ladies Open Lausanne, Andreeva can count on any result at this tournament, even victory. In any case, in terms of class, she is at least not inferior to any of her potential rivals, including the 42nd racket of the world, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who, judging by her position in the ranking, is still the nominal favorite. In the second round, Andreeva will play with 26-year-old Hungarian Anna Bondar, who is only in 155th place and, in theory, does not pose a serious danger to her. Be that as it may, after the victory over Yastremskaya, the youngest tennis player in the top hundred called it her task this season to get into the top 50 in the world, and in order to achieve this goal, she needs to reach the final in Lausanne next Monday.

Evgeny Fedyakov