In her last match as a 16-year-old, Mirra Andreeva beats Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in Madrid
The teenager is through to the last 16 in the Spanish capital for the second year in a row.
On Monday, Mirra Andreeva will celebrate her 17th birthday at the Mutua Madrid Open. On Sunday, she earned herself the perfect present. The teenager moved through to the last 16 in the Spanish capital for the second year in a row with a 7-5, 6-1 win over reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, the No. 7 seed.
Twelve months ago, Andreeva, then 15, made her pro-level breakthrough with a run to the fourth round as a wild card playing her second-ever WTA-level main draw, where she defeated two Top 20 players before losing to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka. Running it back a year later, she scored her second career Top 10 victory, having earned her first over Ons Jabeur at January's Australian Open en route to the fourth round.
Against Vondrousova, Andreeva raced out to 4-1 leads in both sets. But she needed to reel the major-winner back in from that early lead in the first set, as she lost four straight games to trail 5-4. She did all that and more by winning nine of the last 10 games, and delivered a sublime serving performance in the second set. She landed 93% of her first serves, and lost just nine points in the set total.
The match was a microcosom of Andreeva's sophomore effort, both this week and this year, which has not been without growing pains. Last week, she reached the quarterfinals in the WTA 250 in Rouen, France, for her first main-draw matches won since January's Australian Open. It also marked the first tournament in which she was supported by former Grand Slam champion Conchita Martinez as coach on a trial basis. Martinez, the former longtime coach of the recently-retired former world No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza, had previously spent the first three months this year working with Czech Marie Bouzkova.
But the youngster has been taking lessons from her new experiences: Speaking to Prakash Amritraj earlier this week, after beating fellow teenager Linda Noskova, the No. 29 seed, in Madrid's second round, Andreeva said that she's feeling "more like a grown-up."
"I feel more mature even though there’s not much of a difference in my age," Andreeva said. "Last year, I was hoping for some kind of miracle when I was playing against everybody, that on these pressure points, they would give me something with their mistakes or something will happen for me to just win the match.
"Now I know and I’m sure that I will not be able to win a match without doing something myself."
For a spot in the quarterfinals, Andreeva will face the winner of Sunday's later match between No. 11 seed Caroline Garcia and No. 21 seed Jasmine Paolini, February's Dubai champion.