‘I Just Feel a Bit Guilty’ – Mirra Andreeva Opens Up About Sister Erika and the Hurdles She Faced

Mirra Andreeva is already a Grand Slam champion at 19 years old. Presently placed at a career-high ranking of World No. 5, the Russian teenager also leads the 2026 Race to the Finals and is on track to potentially be the year-end No. 1 for the first time in her career.

Andreeva’s older sister, Erika, however, has yet to enjoy a similar breakthrough. While she reached a career high ranking of No. 65 in October 2024, the 22-year-old has presently slipped just outside the world’s top 200.

Mirra Andreeva Discloses How Sister Erika ‘Paved the Way’ for Her in Tennis

During her appearance on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, Mirra Andreeva said she did not have to play as many junior tournaments as her sister, who spent years competing on the junior circuit. She suggested that the decisions regarding her career were influenced by Erika’s experiences, which made the process much easier for her.

“We have so many positives because obviously she’s the one that started playing first. She’s played so many tournaments that I didn’t have to play when I was starting playing. She basically went and played almost every single tournament and juniors, like tennis Europe, ITFs, everything. I didn’t play a lot of juniors. I skipped maybe a year or two in juniors.”

After Mirra won the 2026 French Open, Erika shared that she was “really proud” of her sister but also candidly confessed that she felt “big pressure” and “not good enough.” Mirra, however, credited her sister for “paving the way” for her.

“Without her I don’t think that I would be here right now because she’s just kind of paved the way. She was kind of a light in the tunnel that I was just following, and I didn’t have to play all of those unnecessary tournaments and spend all of my unnecessary energy on certain things,” she told Roddick.

On the junior circuit, Erika was the runner-up at the 2021 French Open girls’ singles event, losing to the recently crowned Wimbledon champion Linda Nosková. Mirra, for her part, did not capture a junior Grand Slam title either. Her best result came at the 2023 Australian Open, where she suffered a narrow defeat in the girls’ singles final.

She was offered a main-draw wildcard at the Madrid Open that year and eventually became the junior World No. 1. The teenager made the most of the opportunity presented to her, with a run to the fourth round in Madrid. She then qualified for the French Open main draw and reached the third round. At Wimbledon 2023, she did one better, making a fourth-round appearance as a qualifier.

“And then there was an opportunity for me to get a wild card. Then that’s how it started. With her, I just feel a little bit guilty in a way that she had to go through it first because I feel like if maybe I would have gone through it first, things would have been different,” Mirra Andreeva said.

MORE: ‘I Feel Extremely Bad’ – Mirra Andreeva Leaves Sister Erika Battling Mixed Emotions

The Andreeva sisters have had a couple of chances to play against each other on the WTA Tour so far. While Erika won their first contest 6-3, 6-1 at the Wuhan Open in 2024, Mirra won the next match via retirement 6-2, 1-0 9 (ret.) at the 2025 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.