Inside Mirra Andreeva’s meteoric rise in 2025

Dozens of names may have come up within the WTA’s season-opening social media video.

Who will attain her first main closing in 2025? Who will make her top-10 debut? Who will win her first 1000-level match?

However there was one title stated again and again by the gamers featured all through the clip: Mirra Andreeva.

Three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur named her a number of occasions. “Everything is Mirra,” she stated.

Even Andreeva, 17, could not assist however purchase into her personal hype: “I want to say myself,” she stated with a smile, on who would win their first 1000-level occasion. “I’m going to do everything possible for that.”

Some seven weeks later, Andreeva made good on her audacious prediction. She received the trophy in Dubai and have become the youngest participant to win an 1000-level title — essentially the most prestigious after a Slam and the year-end WTA Finals. She then cracked the highest 10 and reached a career-high of No. 9.

And the Russian teenager’s momentum has but to sluggish. On Tuesday, Andreeva turned the youngest participant since 2009 to achieve the quarterfinals on the 1000-level BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in simply over an hour.

“This is exactly where I wanted to be but I didn’t think that it would happen this quickly,” Andreeva informed ESPN final week from the participant’s lounge at Indian Wells. “Last year I played here and I lost in the first round, then I had some health problems and I had to retire from Miami and I didn’t think that a year after I would be able to win the biggest title of my career … When I realized I won [in Dubai], I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’

“Once I was doing the press convention [after winning] and so they informed me I used to be already within the high 10, I am like, ‘Actually?’ As a result of that had been a objective for this 12 months however I did not assume I might attain it till October or November, finish of the 12 months, however it was February and I am already within the high 10. I am like, ‘Nicely, I suppose I’ve to think about some new objectives now.'”

While Andreeva said the questions about her new goals have been endless since her triumph in Dubai, it’s nothing new. Nor is the praise or bold beliefs about her future. Andreeva showed she could compete with the best in the world in one of her very first WTA events.

Having received a wild card to the 1000-level Madrid Open in 2023, a 15-year-old Andreeva stunned the tennis world with a staggering run to the fourth round behind victories over Leylah Fernandez, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Magda Linette, claiming a number of “youngest ever” distinctions along the way. Behind her fearless on-court performances and her equally charming television interviews, Andreeva had formally introduced herself to the tennis world. The comparisons to other young phenoms — including Coco Gauff, then 19 — were immediate.

And she quickly proved the Madrid run was no fluke by reaching the third round at the French Open (losing to eventual finalist Gauff in three sets) and becoming the youngest player since Gauff to notch a fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon. By the end of the season, she had made it into the top 50. The expectations were high and the spotlight was bright but Andreeva was unfazed.

“In fact, it is good when folks speak about you and naturally it is not good once they discuss not likely great things, however it’s what it’s,” Andreeva said. “You are going to get some great things and a few unhealthy stuff on the similar time. So that you simply need to know that and it is simply going to occur whether or not you need it or not.”

Andreeva took it to another level in 2024, with her first major semifinals at the French Open, her first WTA title at the Iasi Open in July and an Olympic silver medal in doubles alongside Diana Shnaider as neutral athletes. She was ranked No. 16 by year’s end.

She started working with former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martínez last season, and the two crafted a plan during the preseason of how Andreeva could continue her surge and reach the top 10 in 2025. While Andreeva was not far away, she would need to replicate much of her success in the new season in order to do it. A tall order with so many talented women vying for titles and ranking points every week.

But Andreeva wasted no time. In the first tournament of the year in Brisbane, she reached the semifinals in singles and won the doubles title with Shnaider. There was a fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open, and semifinal doubles runs in both Melbourne and Qatar.

In Dubai, where she only played singles because she and Shnaider inadvertently and comically missed the sign-in deadline, Andreeva put together her most impressive run. She defeated three major champions — Marketa Vondrousova in the Round of 32, Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals and Rybakina in the semifinals — en route to the final. With the title on the line, she escaped a challenging opening set and secured the victory over Clara Tauson, 7-6 (1), 6-1.

“At first, it was all adrenaline after which I felt somewhat bit like I used to be in euphoria, it was simply not actual,” Andreeva told ESPN. “However then I noticed that I received the freaking match and I simply cherished the moments with my group.”

Andreeva then went viral for shouting herself out in her victory speech on court. “Lastly, I wish to thank me for by no means quitting and at all times believing in myself,” she told the crowd.

Thank your self for the way far you have come #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/lwe2QuQ08x

— wta (@WTA) February 22, 2025

The team, which included Martinez, went out for dinner afterwards to celebrate. Andreeva and Martinez talked about everything — from Andreeva’s feelings throughout the match to how nervous they both had felt (but didn’t want to show) and to how proud Martinez was of her young pupil. And then Andreeva got back to work. While she knew Dubai was a milestone achievement, she didn’t want to make too big of a deal of it.

“Once I was a child and touring with my dad and mom, each time I might win a match, we’d rejoice by going out to dinner and I might get to drink a soda,” Andreeva said. “Then and now, I do know that I can rejoice for one, perhaps two, days after which I’ve to get again to apply and put together for the following match. I believe that is why all of us love tennis, [no matter if] you win a match otherwise you lose a match, there’s at all times subsequent week and a brand new alternative to win a match.”

After her win in Indian Wells over Rybakina, the tournament’s 2023 champion, Andreeva has now won her last nine matches and is 16-3 on the season thus far. She has impressed many of her peers along the way.

“It is unimaginable what she’s been capable of do at such a younger age,” world No. 4 Jessica Pegula said last week. “I believe she’s gonna win lots of tournaments and lots of matches for the following ten years … She’s pretty tall however strikes rather well. I believe she has a very good serve for somebody at such a younger age. I believe her courtroom sense, capacity to compete. A variety of issues. A variety of issues you’ll be able to’t educate are already actually sturdy and he or she’s solely going to get higher.”

Andreeva, who will turn 18 in April, will next face Elina Svitolina, the No. 23 seed from Ukraine, on Thursday with a chance to reach her first semifinals at Indian Wells. For Andreeva, it will be a full circle moment because Svitolina was one of the first WTA players she watched in person, in a Round of 16 match versus Simona Halep at the 2021 US Open. The experience changed everything for Andreeva.

“I was watching their match and I was, like, ‘Yes, I’m going to play here one day,'” she informed reporters on Tuesday. “[I thought] ‘Okay, I don’t know with who, but I’m going to play on this stadium.’ And I think they played on — what is it? — Louis Armstrong Stadium. So I was, like, ‘Yes, I’m going to play here.'”

It will likely be the primary assembly between Svitolina and Andreeva. As a result of Svitolina has refused to shake palms with Russian gamers because the invasion of Ukraine three years in the past, Andreeva was requested about it on Tuesday. “Yeah, of course it’s not easy, but, you know, I have played maybe four or five matches against Ukrainian players,” she stated. “And me, I just try not to think about it. I just try to focus on my game, to do my routines, to prepare myself that it’s not going to be easy.”

Calling Svitolina a “fighter,” Andreeva stated she would belief in Martinez to arrange her absolutely for the match and the “small details” she would want to win. After ending her match later within the night on Tuesday, Andreeva was completely satisfied to have Wednesday to recuperate and have a while to calm down at her lodge.

She had stated earlier than the match started that she hoped to have a while to go to the close by outlet shops, along with doing her schoolwork. She’s only a few months away from finishing her highschool coursework on-line however first should go exams in her remaining 4 courses — math, geography, after which her two “easiest ones” Russian and English — to graduate. She stated she was barely frightened about it, however was thrilled to be virtually completed.

Her subsequent objective on the tennis courtroom? To achieve the highest 5, however Andreeva stated that was primarily as a result of it was the very first thing she may consider. If she had been to win Indian Wells, she would seemingly be proper exterior of that, and will probably be in putting distance over the following few months no matter if she wins the title or not. Past that, she’s undecided however is happy to determine it out.

“Oh God, actually I didn’t think about [anything past this season],” she stated. “I think every tennis player wants to win as many tournaments [as possible], to have many Slams, to be No. 1. But I also want to be remembered as a great tennis player, as a person who always fights and never gives up. But I don’t even know what I want to be and where I want to be in five years. That feels so far away.

“I am simply [taking it] one week at a time proper now.”