Mirra Andreeva has denied that she is the favourite for the Mutua Madrid Open title as she takes on Marta Kostyuk in Saturday’s final.
The recently turned 19 year-old edged past Hailey Baptiste 6-4 706(8) to reach her first final in Madrid.
In the close contest, Andreeva saved three set points before closing out the second set tiebreak to reach the final.
It was a win that means Andreeva is the first teenager to reach three WTA 1000 finals since the tier’s introduction in 2009.
In the final, Andreeva will face Marta Kostyuk who edged past Anastasia Potapova 6-2 1-6 6-1 to reach her first WTA 1000 final of her career.
The ninth seed enters this match as favourite on paper but Andreeva has dismissed that is the case ahead of Saturday’s final, “I don’t consider myself the favorite for the match because I know that whoever gets to the final is a tough opponent,” Andreeva admitted to the WTA website.
“I’ve learned not to care about the rankings of my opponent or the last name of my opponent as well. I’m just going to try to go on court and do the things that I have to do to really focus on the game plan that we create with Conchita, and that’s the only thing I can control.
“I cannot control the future. I cannot control the results, the outcome, so that doesn’t depend on me. In the final I will just try to do everything that is, that I can control, and then we will see what’s going to happen.”
Kostyuk currently leads their head-to-head 1-0 having won their meeting in Brisbane at the start of the year.
