When Mirra Andreeva made history in Dubai three months ago by becoming the youngest WTA 1000 champion in series history, the then 17-year-old famously thanked herself in her victory speech.
“Last but not least, I would like to thank me. I know what I have been dealing with so I want to thank me for always believing in me, I want to thank me for never quitting and always dealing with the pressure,” Andreeva told the crowd at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium during the trophy ceremony.
Three weeks later, she enjoyed another stunning run at the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, where she defeated world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
She once again thanked herself during her speech. It’s not always easy for athletes to take a step back and give credit to themselves and Andreeva’s words struck a chord with many people watching.
The affable teenager realises there could be a deeper meaning behind her speech. But she is also candid about what inspired her to say those words, and she confessed her reasoning was not that deep.
“I will be honest, I didn't think of how important it is to thank yourself. I just saw an interview of Snoop Dogg before playing a final and I was like, ‘OK, if I win, I might just say that’, and that's what I did,” Andreeva said recently in Madrid.
When Snoop Dogg received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame back in 2018, the American rapper famously wrapped up his speech by paying tribute to himself. “My first thought was, ‘Oh, it would be cool if I say the same’,” admitted Andreeva.
Andreeva has many standout qualities as a tennis player, her creative game earning her countless fans across the globe, ever since she broke through on the WTA tour as a 15-year-old at the Madrid Open.
But it is perhaps her authenticity that is the most likeable thing about her. So often in conversation, Andreeva can surprise you, her earnestness allowing her to share an unfiltered version of her personality.
When she reached the last-16 in Madrid on her tour-level debut two years ago, she said the most special thing about being at the Caja Magica was being able to dine with some of the biggest stars on tour.
“You see Andy Murray … you see his face and he’s so beautiful in life. He’s so amazing,” she gushed.
Her surprise run that tournament caught the eye of former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, who reached out to the Russian teenager to congratulate her.
“I was super shocked that a Grand Slam champion texted me. And I was like, ‘Mom, did you see?’ I was super excited. And I still remember that moment,” Andreeva recalls.
During her first Australian Open main draw appearance last year, Andreeva rallied back from 1-5 down in the final set of her third round to defeat Diane Parry in a deciding tiebreak.
Murray was watching on TV and hailed Andreeva’s mental strength in a post on social media. She got the tweet framed and says she keeps it on her bedside table.
“I even have the photo on my phone. It's like on my wallpaper,” she beamed, reciting the content of the tweet verbatim. “I remember this tweet, like exactly how he wrote it.”
In the span of two years, Andreeva has gone from being a starry-eyed new kid on the block to becoming a household name herself, and she enters this week’s Roland Garros ranked a career-high No 6 in the world and perched nicely at No 3 in the Race to the WTA Finals.
The French Open is where Andreeva made her Grand Slam debut in 2023, and it’s the site of her best major result so far, having reached the semi-finals on Parisian clay 12 months ago.
The Roland Garros venue is also where Andreeva won a silver medal in doubles, alongside Diana Shnaider, at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“When I came here and my first practice was with Diana, so we came here and I think our first thought was it's like we never left. The time passed super quickly, and the memories are amazing,” Andreeva told reporters at Roland Garros on Friday.
“My first practice was with her, and we just kind of had some flashbacks practising on Philippe Chatrier Court. Yeah, the memories were great, and I always remember the time with a smile on my face. I think that it was a great experience for us.”
In Dubai in February, Andreeva knocked out three Grand Slam champions – Marketa Vondrousova, Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek – en route to the title. She beat Rybakina and Swiatek again at her very next tournament, clinching the Indian Wells crown with a brave final performance against Sabalenka.
Her preparations for the French Open included back-to-back runs to the quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome, losing to Coco Gauff on both occasions, and Andreeva is high up on many pundits’ lists of top contenders for the title in Paris.
She opens her Roland Garros campaign on Tuesday against Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and owns a 7-1 record in Grand Slam first-round matches.
Given her soaring success this year, Andreeva has felt a shift in how she’s being received in the locker room and around tournaments.
“I start to notice that a lot of people call me by my name, not just like, ‘Hey, how are you?’ They say, ‘Hey, Mirra’. So it feels nice,” she said with a smile.
“I feel like a lot more players kind of, not recognise me, but they got to know me more, as well. So I also get to meet new people and talk to new people. It's just nice to to meet new people.
“Sometimes I just didn't expect people to come and just have a chitchat with me or just ask how I am and all this stuff. So it's nice that people, they get to know me more, and I also start to get to know more people.”
A noticeable improvement in Andreeva’s game has been her serve, which has become an underrated weapon.
She hit 202kmph against Swiatek at Indian Wells, and says crossing the 200 threshold is something she hopes to achieve more frequently.
“We worked a lot during the pre-season on my serve. We worked a lot on jumping higher, on jumping more active with the legs, to be faster with the arm, those small details,” she explains. “I'm just super happy that the work that we did is paying off now.
“I wouldn't say that it comes naturally to me because, for example, when I was younger, I was always the smallest one. So my serve was super average. I had a good kick serve, good spin, that's the only thing I could do and I was not a great server when I was playing juniors.”
Andreeva has just turned 18 and is the second-youngest player in the Roland Garros women’s main draw. She may be young but having been highly-touted since she was 15, Andreeva feels experienced when it comes to handling the pressure of expectations.
She has a brilliant coach in her corner in the form of ex-Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez and uses all available tools at her disposal to work on her mindset, even watching YouTube videos of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant interviews to help develop a killer instinct.
She has followed a simple approach since her triumph in Dubai.
“Someone told me not to think about anything else but just the point that you're playing right now and you just have to focus on a point that is going on,” she says.
“If it didn't go your way, you forget it happened and then you start to focus from zero again on the point that you have to play. And that's how I try to play in Dubai and Indian Wells and every tournament I play, that if the point didn't go my way, I just forget it happened and I just try to focus from zero to win the next one.”
It is fair to say she can cause some serious damage in Paris if she sticks to that mentality.
