Mirra Andreeva arrived at Wimbledon having never played a match on grass and finds herself in the fourth round. The big question for the 16-year-old – what’s the secret?
‘On the first practice I fell three times,’ she said last week.
‘It’s pretty tough for me to get used to the grass – the moving is different, the ball bounces differently, the grass is slippery. I feel a bit slow, but I think it’s OK.
‘I try to do small steps and I still feel dangerous on court. As we can see, it goes pretty well for now.’
‘Pretty well’ may be something of an understatement for a career-best run at a Slam with veteran campaigner Madison Keys next in her way in round four today.
Sixteen-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva is the talk of Wimbledon after reaching round four
She grew up in Siberia but her mother soon moved, first to Sochi, then to Cannes, for tennis
Given the tensions still surrounding Russian and Belarusian players – in light of the fact they were banned from competing at SW19 last year – Andreeva has brought a charisma and a charm that has won over many.
The 16-year-old has been studying English for five years, first with a tutor and now picking it up on the tennis tour, and so she is not wound as tight as some of her elder peers. Even amid the pressure, she’s taking it all in her stride.
Andreeva hails from Krasnoyarsk, a city on the Yenisei River in Siberia, but moved to Sochi in a bid to step up her tennis training after her mother pushed her and her sister into taking it much more seriously, before they later moved to Cannes.
It has been said that her mother, Raisa, fell in love with tennis after seeing Russian ace Marat Safin win the Australian Open in 2005. From there, the dream was born for her children to be tennis stars.
Her grandfather Petr, who remains in Russia, remains one of her biggest fans and is tracking her matches closely after she reached the last-16 at Wimbledon.
‘I feel the support from Krasnoyarsk, a lot of people are posting the stories,’ Andreeva said after her most recent win, a 6-2, 7-5 win over 22nd-seeded Anastasia Potapova.
‘They are tagging me everywhere. It feels super nice because they remember me.
‘I’m excited about it, that they still cheer for me.’
Andreeva has switched to an online Russian school in a bid to better juggle it with tennis
She stunned 22nd-seeded Anastasia Potapova to reach her first ever Grand Slam fourth round
For as much as expectations are soaring for Andreeva and her potential, she was quick last week to play down suggestions of replicating Emma Raducanu’s fairytale run to winning a Slam from qualifying at the US Open.
Andreeva is happy ‘still being a kid’ and unwinding watching Netflix – like any other 16-year-old girl, she insists.
MIRRA ANDREEVA’S SW19 RUN SO FAR
QUALIFIER – d. Chloé Paquet, 6-1, 6-2
QUALIFIER – d. Tamara Korpatsch, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2
FIRST ROUND – d. Wang Xiyu, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
SECOND ROUND – d. Barbora Krejčíková, 6-4, 4-0 (walkover)
THIRD ROUND – d. Anastasia Potapova, 6-2, 7-5
‘I do everything that the girls my age do. I love to watch some series. I have to do my school. I have no choice. I have to suffer for two more years, and that’s it,’ she joked.
‘When I have free time, sometimes I prefer to be alone, it depends on my mood.
‘But most of the time I watch Netflix if I’m honest.’
But, as Raducanu found and as Coco Gauff, the American star who announced herself by beating Venus Williams as a 15-year-old at Wimbledon a few years ago, ‘normal’ will soon be a word that doesn’t fit Andreeva’s vocabulary.
This run to the fourth round has seen Andreeva, who became the top-ranked junior in the world back in May, boost her Instagram following to more than 66,000, while her bank balance has gone from around £21,000 at the start of the year to beyond £200,000.
She is also one of the next star’s of Netflix’s ‘Break Point’ series. Frankly, there are few teenage prospects in sport right now that have as much interest as Andreeva.
The 102-ranked player, who will comfortably burst into the top 100 when this run reaches its conclusion, has an older sister that is also a professional tennis player, Erika.
The pair are particularly close and live and train out of Cannes, where Jean-René Lisnard pulls the coaching strings.
The younger Andreeva has been moved to an online school based in Moscow to ease her workload around matches – she is not a fan of chemistry – and her tournaments are being carefully selected for her to avoid burnout.
‘Of course, I feel confident, but it’s different between self-confidence and just confidence,’ Andreeva said.
‘Because if you are too self-confident, then it will be not good for your career.
‘Because you can go, as my coach says, as a diva. So, I just try to stay humble.’
Andreeva speaks with a maturity well beyond her years, and with a measure that suggests she can go all the way to the top.
Her older sister Erika (right) is also a professional player, with their mum falling in love with the sport after watching fellow Russian Marat Safin win the Australian Open back in 2005
Andreeva is a self-confessed super fan of Andy Murray – and she is too nervous to chat to him
It is only when the name ‘Andy Murray’ comes up where she blushes and seems to lose all composure.
‘I met Andy Murray here,’ she said after her second round win over Barbora Krejčíková.
‘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!’
For now the Scot remains out of reach, at least in the eyes of Andreeva, but her ambitions line up with all the great champions, like Murray.
‘The dream? I know that Djokovic, he did 22 Grand Slams or 23, so I want to go until 25, if it will be possible. I don’t know,’ she added.
As for her secret, nobody quite seems to know. Maybe it’s her breakfast order: Scrambled eggs (with tomato sauce), two chicken sausages, five pieces of melon and six pieces of watermelon, and a drink of pineapple juice.
Whatever it is, Andreeva looks destined for greatness, even if she’s content right now to be a typical 16-year-old.
