Andreeva continues to defy odds of the modern teenage tennis prodigy | Tennis

Tlisted here are two youngsters within the high 100 of the WTA rankings in the mean time. Ladies’s tennis, in some methods, was constructed on the success of its baby prodigies – Chris Evert, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters – who audaciously stormed in direction of the highest of their youth, demanding consideration.

These days are lengthy gone. Between the improved depth, physicality and professionalism on the decrease ranges, probably a extra sparse expertise pool and the WTA’s age eligibility guidelines proscribing the variety of tournaments a toddler can contest, it’s more and more tougher to flit up the rankings so early.

For these causes, the primary three months of the season have been fascinating. Mirra Andreeva continued to defy tendencies and patterns on Sunday by successful the largest title of her profession at Indian Wells at 17 years outdated.

It’s troublesome to overstate the importance of this achievement. A number of weeks after successful her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai final month, Andreeva triumphed in California by outplaying and outsmarting Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, the 2 finest gamers on the earth, in consecutive three-set matches to win the title. She is now on a 12-match successful streak and has risen to No 6 with a bullet.

Earlier than Andreeva, two gamers below 18 had overwhelmed the highest two in a WTA occasion: Steffi Graf and Serena Williams. The opposite teenager within the high 100, in the meantime, is the 18-year-old Australian Maya Joint, at No 80.

Regardless of her youth, it nonetheless looks like Andreeva has not missed any steps in her improvement and her latest type is correct on schedule. Two years in the past, Andreeva broke via, defeating two high 20 gamers en-route to the fourth spherical of the 2023 Madrid Open. Since then, she has quickly risen up the rankings, reaching the French Open semi-finals and breaking into the highest 20 final 12 months. The obstacles she has confronted and the robust classes realized on her path have been simply as vital in her development. She has endured loads of troublesome losses that sharpened her sport and strengthened her character.

From the second she emerged on the tour, it was clear Andreeva was blessed with a novel improvisational sport. She possesses a big number of photographs, clever level development and the flexibility to time the ball sweetly and redirect tempo, notably together with her depraved two-handed backhand. Her sport was typically underpowered in opposition to the highest gamers, however as she continues to develop into an grownup and achieve bodily energy, she has made important offensive enhancements. Her elevated ball pace and weight of shot this 12 months have allowed her to commerce from the baseline with the perfect gamers as equals.

That development was notably on present within the remaining phases of her title run. Towards Swiatek, Andreeva was spectacular in horrendous windy circumstances, overpowering the Pole from the baseline as she lasered down-the-line backhand winners from all elements of the courtroom. The added tempo on her first serve was astonishing; the 126mph ace she struck within the first-set tiebreak is likely one of the quickest girls’s serves of all time. After trailing by a set in opposition to Sabalenka, Andreeva expertly soaked up the world No 1’s huge strokes, once more serving properly and dragging the Belarusian into uncomfortable elements of the courtroom together with her drop photographs and low slices. At such a younger age, Andreeva’s sport is already full.

The momentum Andreeva has constructed has a lot to do together with her blossoming partnership with the 1994 Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martínez, who Andreeva has steadily bantered with throughout her on-court interviews. Other than being a top quality coach – she helped Garbiñe Muguruza to a Wimbledon title in 2017 – she appears an fulfilling particular person to work with.

After Elena Rybakina’s former coach, Stefano Vukov, was banned by the WTA for a 12 months because of alleged emotionally abusive behaviour, which he denied, their success underlines the significance of feminine coaches in girls’s tennis, of which there are nonetheless too few.

Indian Wells 2025 will signify two younger skills marking themselves as true contenders on the world stage. The following problem for Andreeva and Jack Draper is solely to maneuver on. The Miami Open foremost draw started on Tuesday with Naomi Osaka in motion. Whereas Emma Raducanu performs her first match in opposition to the 19-year-old Japanese wildcard Sayaka Ishii on Wednesday, Andreeva and the opposite seeded gamers have acquired a first-round bye.

Within the males’s draw, which is able to showcase Novak Djokovic’s return to Miami for the primary time since 2019, Draper will start his pursuit of the “Sunshine Double” in opposition to both Jakub Mensik or Roberto Bautista Agut in spherical two.

The fact of being a high participant and constantly making deep runs within the greatest occasions is that they’ve much less time to mirror on these successes.