Mirra Andreeva turned on the non-stop mode

16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva, who currently ranks 102nd in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings and has been in the spotlight for the past two months due to very high results for her age, came out in 1/2 in the second consecutive Grand Slam tournament. 16 finals. Taking eight games in a row from the 11th racket of the world, Czech Barbora Krejcikova, who, due to an injury, refused to continue the fight at the end of the second game, she guaranteed herself a place in the top hundred of the world classification, where starting from July 17 she will be the youngest tennis player.

Mirra Andreeva continues to conquer new heights, and now it is already obvious that the grass courts, on which the young Russian woman had never entered even at junior competitions until last week, cannot be an obstacle to this. Andreeva, like Roland Garros, started her first Wimbledon with a qualification, and it turned out a little more difficult for her than in Paris, because in the decisive match the Russian woman gave one set to the German Tamara Korpach, who is 12 years older than her. In the first round of the main draw, she defeated the 65th world-ranked Chinese woman Wang Xiyu, and before the next round she got into a difficult situation.

Due to the fact that the rains made serious adjustments to the tournament schedule, the meeting with Wang Xiyu did not take place on Tuesday, but only on Wednesday evening. Moreover, the Russian tennis player had to play three stubborn games, while her next opponent Barbora Kreychikova dealt with the British Heather Watson in two sets much earlier and had several hours more to prepare for the second round match.

In addition, in terms of experience and personal achievements, the Czech could give Andreeva a huge head start.

The 27-year-old tennis player from Brno has not only an unexpected victory at Roland Garros two years ago, but also quarter-finals at the US Open (2021) and Australian Open (2022), as well as the fourth round of Wimbledon (2021). In addition, Krejcikova is the owner of six WTA singles titles. Not to mention the fact that she is one of the strongest tennis players in doubles, where two of her seven major victories were won by her at Wimbledon. That is, the grass for Kreychikova is a comfortable surface, on which she has shown excellent tennis more than once.

Despite this, the first two games on their pitch were not easy for the Czech. Andreeva even had one break point, which, however, she could not convert. Soon, Kreichikova again took the lead – 3:2, easily holding the pitch, but, as it turned out later, this was her last achievement.

Demonstrating a more accurate and tactically verified game, the Russian woman began to completely outplay her venerable opponent, who in the ninth game on the first set point made an unforced mistake, trying to perform a sharp blow to the line.

And during the break between games, it turned out that Kreychikova had serious problems with her left ankle. Medical assistance did not help, and, having lost eight games in a row, with a score of 6:3, 4:0 in favor of Andreeva, she refused to continue the fight exactly one hour after the first hit on the ball.

Thus, Mirra Andreeva, who, recall, celebrated her 16th birthday at the end of April, won her second match at Wimbledon within 18 hours. Moreover, she won her most significant victory so far in terms of her opponent’s rating. Recall that in May in Madrid, she managed to beat the future Roland Garros semi-finalist Beatriz Addad Maia, who was at that time in the WTA classification in 14th place. There are other accomplishments that the young Wimbledon debutante can take to her credit. During the Open Era period (since 1968), only two tennis players at a younger age have reached the third round of the London Major. In 1999, 16-year-old Belgian Kim Clijsters succeeded, who at that time was only a month older than Andreeva is now, and in 2019, 15-year-old American Coco Gauff. More importantly, starting July 17, Mirra Andreeva will be in the top 100, which she missed quite a bit at Roland Garros. There are no such young tennis players at the moment. Czechs Linda Noskova (45th in the world) and Linda Frugvirtova (53rd) are 18 years old, and last year’s Roland Garros finalist Coco Gauff (7th) and Russian Diana Schneider (98th) are 19 each.

Evgeny Fedyakov