By now, tennis fans must feel that it is normal for Mirra Andreeva to break tennis records every other month.
After all, at 19 years old, the young Russian starlet is already the Roland Garros champion and a two-time WTA 1000 winner.
Andreeva, as evidenced by her past success, is a supreme athlete; and boy did she do her standing no harm on Monday evening.
After a close first set, the teenager blew away Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, triumphing 6-4, 6-0 at the WTA Finals.
In securing her first-ever WTA Finals match win, Andreeva made tennis history.
Mirra Andreeva’s WTA Finals history
Andreeva has become the first player since 2005 to record a victory at the WTA Finals, as per statisticians OptaAce.
Andreeva, born in 2007, has become the youngest player to win a match at the end-of-year tournament since Coco Gauff, who was born in 2004. The American was also 19 years old when she defeated Ons Jabeur at the 2023 Finals.
Qinwen Zheng was the first player born in 2002 to accomplish the feat, while Iga Swiatek was the first from the class of 2001 to do the same.
Andreeva will look to win her second match at the Finals on Wednesday when she steps onto court against world number two Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka, who is the top seed following Elena Rybakina’s withdrawal, defeated Karolina Muchova on Monday.
“I am very, very curious to see how I am going to play against Aryna because we played last year the final of Indian Wells on these courts, so I’m just very curious to see how maybe we’ve both changed and how maybe the match is going to look like,” Andreeva recently stated in an interview on the Big T Podcast.
First player born in each year to win a WTA Finals match
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2001: Iga Swiatek
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2002: Qinwen Zheng
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2004: Coco Gauff
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2007: Mirra Andreeva
Mirra Andreeva deserves credit for her maturity
Andreeva became embroiled in scandal last week when Jessica Pegula’s ill-advised comments were caught by a microphone during a pre-tournament practice session.
Pegula described Andreeva as a ‘diva’ and said she had lost some respect for the Russian’s coach, Conchita Martinez.
Pegula swiftly apologised to Andreeva in person, and the WTA issued an apology to its players, noting that they had failed to inform players about the presence of microphones at the practice sessions.
For what it’s worth, Andreeva and Pegula seemed to have squashed any discontent and have both shown remarkable maturity in the face of adversity.
For this, both players should be commended.
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Esta notĂcia foi originalmente publicada em: Fonte original