Mirra Andreeva has been compared to tennis great Martina Hingis in glowing comments from the coach of one of her WTA rivals.
Teen star Andreeva burst onto the scene at the Madrid Open last May and the 17-year-old has since reached a career-high of 21st on the WTA Rankings.
Currently ranked 22nd, 2024 has seen the Russian reach a first Grand Slam semi-final at the French Open, win her first WTA title in Iasi, and claim an Olympic doubles silver medal.
Andreeva has long been recognised as one of the brightest prospects on the WTA, if not the brightest, and now she has drawn comparisons to Hingis from Anton Dubrov – the coach of Aryna Sabalenka.
Dubrov has coached Sabalenka to three major titles and was watching in the stands when Andreeva sensationally beat his charge in the last eight at Roland Garros this June.
The Belarusian was impressed by what he saw and, speaking to Championat, was effusive in his praise of Andreeva.
“It is deserved [attention on her], at least because she is 17 years old,” said Dubrov.
“She can use any tactic and strength of her opponent well, she understands better how to neutralize them – which is very important.
“If girls come out and hope for some shots, not playing the rally to the end, then Mirra can neutralize the attack, force them to re-enter the rally. And when you are not ready for this either physically or mentally, you start to fade away somewhere.
“She has a good serve. She plays simply – but the simpler, the better, because you don’t try to show off, but proceed from simple basic things.
“Everything came together: her attractive game, her youth, which attracts attention, the pressure, which she copes with quite well.
“But the question is how she will develop further physically and how she will treat her game as development. If she continues to strive to develop in the same way, then everything will happen.”
Andreeva’s win over Sabalenka at Roland Garros was one of the biggest shocks of the tournament, with many predicting the second seed to face off against Iga Swiatek in the final.
The former world No 1 was noticeably struggling during the match and Dubrov revealed that she was struggling with food poisoning throughout the contest.
He added: “She [Sabalenka] got food poisoning the day before in a restaurant. And by the end of the match with [Emma] Navarro, she felt ill.
“After the match, we arrived at the hotel, and she had a cold shiver: she was lying in bed and had a fever. After that, we only had a light workout, but before the match with Mirra, it was sad: 20-30 minutes of warming up, and then there was no strength.
“If your stomach is beating, it’s beating you hard. And literally after a couple of games, she said that she had no strength. She didn’t eat anything, everything hurt.
“If you look at the match, you can see that the person playing is not 100% ready. And on the other hand, there’s Mirra, who did everything right: she fought, didn’t give us an easy life.”
Andreeva is currently in action at the China Open, where she defeated Donna Vekic in three sets on Monday.
That was the 12th top-20 win of the 17-year-old’s career, with only three other women – Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vaidisova, and Kim Clijsters – achieving more such wins this century.
17th seed Andreeva next faces 31st seed Magda Linette for a place in the last eight.
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