At the tender age of 18 Mirra Andreeva is swiftly finding her footing at the top of women’s tennis and the French Open.
The teenager moved into the quarter-finals of Roland Garros for a second year running after beating friend Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-5, in what was a tough encounter at times. She is the youngest player to reach back-to-back quarter-finals at the French Open since Martina Hingis in 1998.
“It was a hell of a match,” said Andreeva.
“Honestly I’m so happy I won, I hate playing against her.
“We practise a lot and even practice is a torture for me.”
Andreeva’s latest triumph comes during what has been a breakthrough season for the Russian, who since January has won two WTA 1000 titles and broke into the top 10 for the first time. So far in 2025, she has only lost to a player ranked outside the top 30 once. Her current position of sixth in the WTA rankings is more than 30 places higher than where she was 12 months ago (38).
Reflecting on her breakthrough, Andreeva linked her rapid rise in the sport to improvements in both her mentality and physicality.
“I think I am much stronger than I was two years ago, and also I think in a different way. Compared to two years ago,” she said during her press conference.
“I’m much more positive right now on the court and I think that also that is one of the keys for me.
“I’m always trying to always fight for every point, no matter what happens.”
The improved mentality is something the youngster explained helps her on the Tour when she is playing rivals such as Kasarkina, who is also her friend. At the end of their match, a light-hearted exchange took place when Kasatkina threw her sweat band at Andreeva, who then stuffed it down her top.
“When I first played against Dasha, it was much more difficult for me to stay focused and to not be nice on the court,” she said.
“But compared to the last match we played against each other, I just knew that she’s gonna want to beat me on the court.
“I don’t know what changed but today it was not that hard to kind of change my mindset. Step on court and kind of be opponents.
“I managed to tell myself that I’m playing against the ball, not against the opponent. So I just tried to focus on the ball that I had to hit. I was able to keep this focus throughout the whole match.”
Kasatkina is not the toughest opponent for Andreeva on the court. She gives that honour to her sister Erika who is ‘10 times harder to play.’ Erika lost in the first round to Great Britain’s Sonay Kartal.
Guiding Andreeva on the Tour is coach Conchita Martinez, who won the 1994 Wimbledon title before reaching the French Open final six years later.
“What she has brought to my game is a lot of positivity,” she said of Martinez.
“If we talk about tactical and maybe technical stuff, she just kind of teaches me how to build a point.
“I’m not going to tell you (the media) exactly which tells me, I’m going to keep it to myself. But it’s just the little things like this.”
