After three rounds in her very first WTA tournament, Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, 16 for two days, saw her adventure in Madrid come to an end in the round of 16 against world number 2, Aryna Sabalenka, victorious 6- 3, 6-1 Monday.
Invited in the main draw, Andreeva had brought down the Canadian Leylah Fernandez (38e), Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (14e) and the Polish Magda Linette (19e) in the first three rounds. Each time in two rounds. Against Sabalenka, however, the step was too high: the Belarusian won in less than 75 minutes.
In the WTA rankings, it is nevertheless the promise for the young Russian of a jump of fifty places on Monday, synonymous with entry into the list of the 150 best players, when she was only playing her third professional tournament of the season ( after two wins on the secondary circuit).
From Siberia to Cannes
“It is of course a positive week. I can’t describe it in one word because a lot of things happened, I had some great matches, ”replies the Siberian, who has been living in Cannes since the start of 2022, on the Côte d’Azur, where she trains under the direction of Jean-René Lisnard and Jean-Christophe Faurel, alongside his older sister, Erika, 114e world at 18.
“At the same time I’m a little upset, because at the beginning [du match]it was close, I had a lot of play points, break points and, if I had converted them, the score could have been 6-2 in the first end”, she says, proof however of his character and his asserted ambitions.
And if she “didn’t expect to play” the prestigious Madrid tournament, “it’s [son] level of play” that she deployed there, she assures. “I try to play like that every game, regardless of my opponent. »
“Me, at that age, I was probably not even in the 300 best juniors…”, recalls his compatriot today world number 3, Daniil Medvedev, who had to scrap him almost 3 hours in the third round to get rid of another Russian, Alexander Shevchenko, 96e world (4-6, 6-1, 7-5). “I haven’t seen her play, but her results are super impressive. »
When the Andreeva sisters, who first left their native Siberia for Sochi, on the shores of the Black Sea, to find better training conditions there, opted for Cannes, they had the choice with the Majorcan academy of Rafael Nadal, says the youngest. Asked to describe their respective game, Mirra Andreeva compares hers to that of Ons Jabeur, and that of her sister to that of Iga Swiatek, the world number 1.
His defeat against Sabalenka put an end to a series of 16 victories on the pro circuits which began on April 10 in Switzerland. Before that, Andreeva, who started playing tennis at the age of six following in her sister’s footsteps, had reached three consecutive junior finals since the start of 2023, including that of the Australian Open.
After this series of matches in three weeks, the Russian teenager will now take a little rest, she explains, before, perhaps, resuming competition in Florence in mid-May, a tournament of the secondary circuit .
The following
In Madrid’s “Caja Mágica”, Sabalenka, crowned in Australia in January and finalist in Stuttgart a week ago, will face the Egyptian Mayar Sherif (59e) in the quarter-finals. This is the first time that Sherif has risen to this stage in this category of tournaments (WTA 1000), the best after the Grand Slams.
The Greek Maria Sakkari (9e) will face the Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu (35e) to try to reach the last four, while the American Jessica Pegula (3e) will be opposed to the Russian Veronika Kudermetova (13e).
As for Medvedev, not very fond of clay, it is a new 100% Russian duel which awaits him in the round of 16, against Aslan Karatsev, surprise semi-finalist in Australia in 2021 who fell outside the list of the 100 best players.
Like him, world No. 5 and recent Barcelona runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas needed three sets (7-5, 3-6, 6-3, in over two hours) to get past Argentinian eye-catching Sebastian Baez ( 31e) In the evening.