There seems to be no stopping Mirra Andreeva at the 2024 Australian Open. The Russian wunderkind had to bring out her clutch game during her third-round match against Diane Parry after finding herself on the brink of defeat. The two players split the first two sets 6-1 with Andreeva drawing the scores level by winning the second set.
With all to play in the third set, the World No. 47 found herself on the ropes as she was down 1-5. Having lost her serve thrice on the trot, Parry seemed to be the one advancing. Andreeva however started holding the Frenchwoman and dug herself out to level the scores at 5-5. Parry had to force the tiebreaker but it was too late for her to make any comeback as the teenager was the first to win the 10-point tiebreaker.
Impressed by her performance, Andy Murray, the idol of the Russian put out a tweet showing his appreciation for her. Not only did he praise her for her mental strength, but he also took a jibe at commentators who ruled out a chance for her to win and advised her to work on her mental side.
Andreeva down 5-1 in third. Commentator “she really needs to work on mental side of her game.. she’s too hard on herself when she’s losing”
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) January 19, 2024
30 minutes later 7-6 Andreeva wins.
Maybe the reason she turned the match round is because of her mental strength. Maybe she turned the…
It was in the press conference that Mirra Andreeva was made aware of the tweet made by the former World No. 1. Having publicly shown her appreciation for the Briton, it became overwhelming for the teenager to comment on it. She had to gather herself and control her happiness before expressing herself.
“Honestly I didn't really think that he would watch a match, then after he would tweet, he would comment something. Honestly, I will try to print it out somehow. I don't know, I will put it in a frame. I will bring it everywhere with me. I will maybe put it on the wall so I can see it every day. Honestly I didn't expect him to do anything about this match.” said Andreeva in her press conference
Mirra Andreeva says she will print Andy Murray’s tweet & put it in a frame so she can bring it everywhere:
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 19, 2024
“Honestly I didn't really think that he would watch a match, then after he would tweet, he would comment something. Honestly, I will try to print it out somehow. I don't… pic.twitter.com/Idm200RiQh
Murray has long been following the teenager’s game and has time and again shown his appreciation for her. The attention from the Briton led to the teen admitting to shying away from meeting him at last year’s Wimbledon as well.
Andreeva will now await the winner of the match between Barbora Krejcikova and local girl Storm Hunter. She secures the fourth round place in her debut at the Grand Slam and will be confident to go further having played a fourth-round clash at a Major already in Wimbledon 2023.
With a bagel over Ons Jabeur in the second round and a thrilling comeback in the third round, Andreeva will certainly be counting on her chances to reach her maiden quarter-final in the coming days. Not only will she be re-writing the history books, but she will certainly stamp her authority as one of the players to always watch out for. History awaits!
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