16-year-old Mirra Andreeva stuns Ons Jabeur in Australian Open second round, admits she’s ‘inspired’ by No. 6 seed
By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — Mirra Andreeva, tennis’ new teenage sensation, shocked Ons Jabeur in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old beat the No. 6 seed and three-time grand slam finalist 6-0 6-2 for her first career top-10 victory as she continues to show why she’s tipped for the top of the sport.
Afterwards, the 47th-ranked Russian was full of respect for Jabeur and detailed how she has become a personal inspiration of hers.
“It was one of my dreams to play against her because I really like the way she plays,” she told reporters afterwards. “As I said before, I’m inspired by her, so it means a lot. Today, it meant a lot, this match that I won.
Andreeva added that she saw Jabeur as an idol because of “the way she’s on the court and off the court. She’s so nice.”
“Now, after the match, she came to me, she wished me luck. I just know that she is who she is and she never changes. That’s what I like about her.”
It took Andreeva just 54 minutes to dispatch Jabeur in Rod Laver Arena, a victory which books her spot in the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in her nascent career. It is the third time she has reached the third round of a grand slam having done so at the French Open and Wimbledon last year.
Although she admitted afterwards that she felt “really nervous” before taking to the court against the Tunisian, Andreeva showed no signs of those nerves.
She dominated from start to finish, facing just one break point across the whole contest as she hit 13 winners and only 10 unforced errors – in contrast, Jabeur totaled 24 unforced errors and just nine winners.
At age 16 and 263 days, Andreeva became the youngest player in the Open era to claim a 6-0 opening set against a top-10 seed at a grand slam, according to the Australian Open.
According to the Women’s Tennis Association, Andreeva became the second-youngest player in the Open era to concede three games or fewer against a top-10 seed at a grand slam after Jelena Dokic who beat Martina Hingis at Wimbledon in 1999.
The victory came a year after she lost in the final of the girls’ competition to her friend Alina Korneeva.
After the win – which she called “probably the best match” of her young career so far – Andreeva explained how she had to battle back from last year’s disappointment to reach this point.
“Honestly, after I lost the final, I was just super upset. I didn’t think about anything else. For maybe a week, I was just replaying the match in my head, and I was thinking: ‘This, I should have changed this, should have changed that, I should have changed this,’” the teenager said.
“Honestly, after that, after all my complaints to myself, I forgot about this match. I decided to move on. It’s not the most painful loss of my life. I will have, I’m sure, a lot of offensive matches where I may be late in the score and then I lose. Maybe. I hope this will not happen, but I think it will because it’s tennis.
“After that, I just moved on. Today, when I saw that I play on Rod Laver, I said that this time I have to take my chance and I have to win on the big court for the first time, and so I did.”
Andreeva will face France’s Diane Parry in the third round after the 21-year-old beat Kamilla Rakhimova in straight sets on Wednesday.
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