Youngest Dubai champion Mirra Andreeva targets top-5 by year end
17-year-old Russian will enter the top 10 rankings on Monday
Dubai: Saturday evening was a super special day for 17-year-old tennis sensation Mirra Andreeva. The youngster created history by becoming the youngest player to win a WTA 1000 title when she emerged the champion of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship. In a dominating final, the Russian teenager defeated Denmark’s Clara Tauson in straight sets 7-6(1), 6-1.
The win will ensure Andreeva will elevate her into the top 10 when the latest PIF WTA World Rankings are released on Monday. She will be the first teen since 2007 to place among the world’s top-10 players.
“This is the exact goal that I’m going to set for myself, to be top 5 by the end of the year,” she said about her fresh goals. “Now when you enter top 10 and the higher your ranking is, the slower and longer it’s going to take for you to be even higher because the difference in the points is very, very short, very small, so I’m very curious if I will be able to achieve it,” she added.
Andreeva defeated three Grand Slam champions — Elena Rybakina, World No 2 Iga Swiatek and Marketa Vondrousova — en route the finals making her the youngest player to do so in a single tournament since her compatriot Maria Sharapova who did it at the WTA Finals in 2004.
No bank account
Since Andreeva is just 17, she still doesn’t have a bank account. So when asked what does she plan to do with her prize money she said: “All questions to my dad,” she said smilingly. “It all goes on his credit card because I don’t have my own yet. I cannot have my own bank account because I’m not 18. “I’m hoping that he will leave me some to spend somewhere, to buy chips and Coke (smiling). I don’t know. I’m going to ask him.
"Honestly, I don’t even know what I want. Now I think about it and I feel like I have everything I ever wanted. I won the tournament. I won it. I’ve already reached my goal that I’ve set for myself by the end of the year. My family is travelling with me. I have a great team. I don’t know what else I need. I feel happy and I feel this is all I need. I have no idea. I think it will all go to my dad’s credit card. Maybe he’s going to buy himself something. I have no idea.”
Going into the final, Andreeva said she tried to keep the pressure off. “Well, I told myself that I’m a finalist already. If I don’t do anything, I already have a smaller trophy. I have to choose if I really want to commit on 100 per cent and do my best and handle all the nerves and all the pressure that I felt, or I can just not give up but I can be not strong enough and let all those thoughts and pressure kill me.
“So when I managed to win the first set, I felt like, Well, okay, this is I think one of the first times when I actually lead in the score. That gave me a bit of confidence. I’m just super happy that it all went my way today,” she said.
Coach's contribution
Andreeva praised her former Wimbledon champion coach Conchita Martinez who joined her last year and said they share a very friendly relation off the court but on court she can be hard. “Well, I like that we have I would say friendly to not hateful (smiling). We can be hard on each other. Of course, outside of the court I feel like we have friendly relationship.
“What I like is that we both know how to separate those friendly relationship. When we’re on the court, we’re not friends to each other. I know that she’s my coach, that I have to be respectful, that I have to listen to what she says because that’s what helps me to win.”
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