Two years ago, Mirra Andreeva was a promising young teenager with plenty of potential, but no guarantees. Today, she is a WTA top-10 player, a Grand Slam semi-finalist, and the youngest player to win a WTA 1000 title, taking out Dubai last month. Keep in mind, she’s still only 17.
That moment, where she held the trophy in a mixture of disbelief and pride, marked a spectacular ascent for a player who only recently transitioned from junior success, to a different type of success at the highest level of the sport. In doing so, Andreeva became the youngest top-10 player in 18 years, following in the footsteps of Maria Sharapova and Nicole Vaidišová. The scary part for the rest of the tour? She’s just getting started.
The Dubai breakthrough
Rewind to February, and Dubai wasn’t just another deep run in a tournament. This was a statement to the tennis world.
En route to the title, Andreeva took down some of the game’s biggest names, including world No.2 Iga Świątek and world No.7 Elena Rybakina. She played with the kind of clarity and confidence that few teenagers have shown on the WTA circuit.
"Maybe I’m going to celebrate for one or two days," she joked after her victory.
"I’m going to let myself relax a little bit, but then I have to get back to work."
Winning, she understands, is both a gift and a burden.
"It’s great to win a tournament, but it’s also not great because you feel more pressure," she explained. "You’re thinking how you won a tournament last week, but you have to start playing from the first-round of the tournament happening the next week. But this is the beauty of tennis; every week is a new chance to win."
Andreeva seems to be doing just fine with the added pressure, charging through her opening matches in Indian Wells across the past fortnight
The Russian's Dubai victory made her the youngest WTA 1000 champion in history. It also propelled her into the top-10, checking off one of the biggest goals she had set for herself before the season even began.
"I would say that my number one goal would be to claim the top-10, just to secure myself there and of course, I think as every other player on tour, I would like to win some titles," Andreeva told Arab News back in January.
"I worked very hard in the preseason and I will continue working hard for it. I’m just hoping that the hard work will pay off and I’ll do everything possible for this."
She didn’t just achieve that goal—she crushed it in record time.
From junior star to Grand Slam contender
Andreeva’s rise wasn’t unexpected. She was the top-ranked junior before competing in her first Wimbledon campaign. Early in 2023, she played one of the most memorable junior Grand Slam finals in recent history, finishing runner-up to Alina Korneeva at the Australian Open. The level of mental strength both players showed on that day belied their young ages. While Korneeva’s time will surely come, it has been Andreeva who has been the first to prove she can transition successfully to the pro tour.
At just 16, Andreeva reached the Wimbledon fourth-round, displaying the same intelligence and composure that have since become her trademarks. Just six months later, she was doing it again - this time at the Australian Open, where she hit the headlines by dismantling Ons Jabeur on Rod Laver Arena, the No.6 player in the world at the time.
But it was her third-round win over Diane Parry at the same tournament that caught the attention of Andy Murray, who took to social media to praise her mental strength, tweeting:
"Andreeva down 5-1 in third. Commentator, 'She really needs to work on mental side of her game, she's too hard on herself when she’s losing.' 30 minutes later, 7-6 Andreeva wins.
Maybe the reason she turned the match round is because of her mental strength. Maybe she turned the match around because she is hard on herself and demands more of herself when she's losing/playing badly? Winner."
With one of the sport’s biggest names calling Andreeva out for her mental strength, it would’ve been easy for her to become distracted by the attention (She has since commented that she has Murray’s tweet in a frame, so clearly it made a big impact!).
But Andreeva remained unfazed by the hype, and in fact, now admits she feels quite comfortable with the attention.
Speaking during this year’s Australian Open, where she bowed out in the round of 16, Andreeva was asked if she now felt like she belonged on the WTA Tour.
"I feel like I'm a WTA player, so I'm here, I'm doing my job, and I like what I'm doing. I feel like yes, now I do belong here at the end."
Belong, she does.
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Making her mark on the WTA Tour
Andreeva’s achievements in the last two years have been astounding. Her ranking has climbed from 300 all the way into the top-10. Currently, for season 2025, she is No.4 in the Race. No one does that without some impressive results.
In a nutshell, here are Andreeva’s highlights at this very early stage of her career:
Won her first two ITF15 titles in Turkey, before her 15th birthday
Reached the fourth-round of Wimbledon at age 16
Won her first WTA title in Romania, taking out the 250 event at age 17
Reached the semi-finals of the French Open at 17, defeating Aryna Sabalenka, the world No.2 at the time, in the quarter-finals
Reached the fourth-round of the Australian Open in her only two appearances
Won the Masters 1000 in Dubai recently, becoming the youngest ever to win a 1000 title.
Made the quarter-finals of three Masters events in 2024 - Madrid, Cincinnati, and China
Won a silver medal at the Paris games partnering Diana Schnaider in the doubles
Has played eight Grand Slam main draws, and only lost in the opening round once.
It’s a very impressive CV for a player who has played the least matches of anyone in the current top-100. Only 157 matches (before Indian Wells), according to the WTA website. Interestingly, the next least is Emma Raducanu, with 187 matches.
A Style From the Past
What makes Andreeva such a fascinating player isn’t just her results - it’s how she wins. She’s not a pure power player, nor is she a relentless counterpuncher. Instead, she plays an intelligent, tactical brand of tennis that has drawn comparisons to the great Martina Hingis.
"Well, I always liked the way Martina Hingis was playing," Andreeva said when asked about those comparisons.
"I have seen some similarities, I would say. I would say she played smart, and I’m also playing smart as her."
Like Hingis, Andreeva has an innate ability to read the game, construct points, and exploit her opponent’s weaknesses. But unlike Hingis, she’s playing in an era where power dominates, making her ability to out-think stronger opponents even more impressive.
Not to say for one minute she’s in the same league as Hingis at the same age. Hingis was an absolute freak, winning five majors before turning 18. But everyone goes on their own timeline, and Andreeva is on track to be a multiple Slam winner.
Her record against top-10 players - six wins in her first 15 matches - is evidence of that. To put it into perspective, Jasmine Paolini, a relative veteran of the tour, has won six of her first 20 matches against top-10 opponents. Andreeva is already ahead of the curve.
Has Andreeva Been Overlooked?
Despite all of her incredible achievements at just 17, Andreeva’s rise hasn’t been met with the same level of excitement as some of her male counterparts. Take, for instance, Brazilian 18-year-old João Fonseca. He’s an exciting young prospect, without doubt. But the attention he has received far outweighs his actual achievements. Fonseca has only recently won his maiden ATP title and just broken into the ATP top-100, yet there’s already substantial buzz around him as a future star.
Andreeva, on the other hand, has reached a Grand Slam semi-final, won a Masters 1000 title, and cracked the WTA top-10 at a younger age than nearly all of her predecessors in recent years. Nonetheless, until her Dubai triumph, mainstream tennis coverage had been surprisingly quiet about her rapid ascent.
Is this a case of tennis media inherently favouring male players? Or has Andreeva simply gone under the radar due to her quiet, unassuming personality?
Teenage boys who show promise are regularly anointed as the sport’s next big thing, long before they’ve proven themselves. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old girl putting up results that rival some of the best prodigies in history, seemingly won’t make much of a ripple until major trophies are won.
Andreeva doesn’t seem to mind. She isn't concerned about media narratives. Instead, she is focused on her tennis.
"I don’t actually feel any pressure about this," she said earlier in the year when told that she’s been touted as a clear top-10 prospect this season.
"I’m sure that it’s a matter of time until I’m in the top-10."
The 2007-born talent is one win away from appearing in back-to-back WTA 1000 finals, but she first needs to get past five-time major winner Świątek.
Andreeva is yet to drop a set in the Californian desert, who wiped out Rybakina and Elina Svitolina like it was nothing.
In terms of the trajectory of her career, the question is… how far she can go?
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