Sibling acts in tennis aren’t rare. But with Venus Williams bowing out in her first round match at the age of 43, and Serena having (ostensibly) retired at last year’s US Open, Wimbledon is in the market for successors. Enter: the Andreevas.
The two Russian teens have been making a name (the same one) for themselves, climbing the rankings by clocking up lower tour titles and promising debut performances at the slams over the past 12 months. Though the elder, Erika (aged 19), was knocked out in last week’s qualifiers, her younger sister Mirra, just 16, and a Junior Australian Open finalist, is proving to be the more consistent with a series of blockbuster results – as a wildcard she beat two top 20 players, Beatriz Haddad-Maia included, to reach the last 16 in Madrid last month; and she made the third round in her slam debut in Paris.
Such is the hype around Andreeva Jr that today, as she takes on the decade-older 2021 French Open champion, Barbora Krejcikova, she is being followed by cameras for Netflix’s Break Point, the latest addition to the burgeoning market of sporting fly-on-the-wall documentaries. In the post-match press conference the teen will admit to at first having been nervous about this new starring role: “But now I kind of like it.”
On a sun-drenched but small No 4 court – an odd choice to host two former grand slam champions (Sofia Kenin played the day’s opening match) – Krejcikova gets under way with an ace. But it’s immediately apparent when Andreeva takes the game to deuce – and then holds her opening service game to love – that the youngster is in the mood. She earns her first break point of the match in the very next game, but her Czech opponent sneaks through.
The two continue on serve until 3-3, teasing backhand slice rallies interspersed with fierce forehands, with Andreeva levelling the score with a beautifully judged drop volley. But a double fault from Krejcikova in the seventh game – she has been struggling with her ball toss since the beginning – brings up a second break point of the match. On a third, Andreeva secures the breakthrough after scampering to a low ball and finding the corner. Fist pumps towards her box.
Andreeva hits an ace to consolidate, going 5-3 up and, after a forehand sails long from Krejcikova, breaks for a second time to seal the first set 6-3. At the sit-down, the despondent-looking No 10 seed calls for a medical timeout (MTO). She has been wearing a tape on the outside of her left leg, and, during her first round match – in which she knocked out Britain’s Heather Watson – an injury scare had led her to return to court with her ankle heavily strapped. Andreeva practises serves as the physio tentatively rotates an ankle. Whatever the treatment is, it doesn’t work.
Despite Krejcikova’s valiant efforts, she begins the second set moving like molasses. It’s in stark contrast to Andreeva’s court-coverage and athleticism – understandable for someone born just three years after the launch of Facebook – and she reaches basically all of the Czech’s drop-shots, which are hit with increasing frequency in her attempt to shorten points. Andreeva holds to love, with Krejcikova dumping multiple balls into the net or scything them off the racket frame. She’s unable to push off from her left leg. It’s like watching a fly with a single wing.
Andreeva breaks once more, in the second game, and holds the next to bring up a 3-0 lead. Krejcikova shakes her head in the direction of her team before a second MTO is called. The skies might be blue for the first time this week but the signs are ominous. And, almost inevitably, she is broken yet again for a second-set four game deficit and heading towards what would be the tournament’s 13th bagel. There’s a warm handshake as Krejcikova concedes at 3-6, 0-4, and it’s a shame for a well-liked player who enjoys her time on the grass and is a two-time doubles champion at the All England Club.
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In the post-match press conference, Andreeva is a fizzy hybrid of natural teendom – everything is “super”, and she endearingly tells us she took no fewer than 15 photographs of Centre Court when she saw it for the first time – and assured confidence: she’s desperate to play on that same court. Would love it. In fact, loves the whole tournament: “the white clothes, the strawberries”; thinks the notorious bad bounces are exaggerated. This is her first ever tournament playing on grass. There’s a little drive-by on the French as she calls Roland Garros “simple”, probably due to speaking in a second language but we’ll take it.
Blocking her route to centre court is her potential opponent in the next round: fellow Russian and the 22nd seed Anastasia Potapova, who last hit the headlines for wearing a Spartak Moscow shirt as she made a match entrance, and who beat the youngster in three sets in Andreeva’s WTA debut match. Andreeva has gained much more experience since then, she says.
But perhaps the key to her form – she’s now dropped just two sets in her five matches, including the qualifiers – is the pure joy she shows for the game; the exuberance of youth: “I always want to win but I will just do my best. I will be super happy to get through or even make the semis, but I don’t have any goals – I just like to play.”