Teenage star Mirra Andreeva has been one of the stories of the 2024 Australian Open so far with her impressive run to the fourth round of the year’s first major.
The 16-year-old has reached the last 16 of a Grand Slam tournament for the second time in her young career after progressing to the same stage at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Andreeva’s Australian Open run has arguably been even more impressive than her Wimbledon campaign – with her second and third round triumphs in Melbourne hugely impressive for different reasons.
In the second round, the world No 47 dismantled world No 6 and three-time major winner Ons Jabeur 6-0, 6-2 to claim her first career win against an opponent ranked in the top 10.
The Russian’s stunning 56-minute triumph saw her become the youngest player in the Open Era to bagel a top 10 seed in the first set of a Grand Slam match.
She is also the second-youngest player to lose fewer than three games in beating a top 10 seed in a major after Jelena Dokic – who crushed Martina Hingis 6-2, 6-0 in the first round of Wimbledon in 1999.
In the third round, Andreeva showed incredible resilience to save a match point and recover from 1-5 down in the third set in overcoming 72nd-ranked Diane Parry in a match tiebreak.
Andreeva will be 16 years, 8 months and 29 days old on the day of the women’s final and if she were to win the title in Melbourne, she would become the third-youngest women’s Grand Slam champion in the Open Era.
There is, of course, still a long way to go for that to happen and it is important not to place any extra pressure on the shoulders of the 16-year-old.
Andreeva will face world No 11 and 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova in the last 16 of the Australian Open on Sunday.
Martina Hingis is the youngest major winner in the Open Era, having triumphed at the 1997 Australian Open at the age of just 16 years, 3 months and 26 days.
Monica Seles is the second-youngest player to secure a Grand Slam crown, having won the 1990 French Open aged 16 years and 189 days.
Top 10 youngest women’s Grand Slam champions in the Open Era
1. Martina Hingis, 1997 Australian Open – 16 years and 117 days
2. Monica Seles, 1990 French Open – 16 years and 189 days
3. Tracy Austin, 1979 US Open – 16 years and 270 days
4. Maria Sharapova, 2004 Wimbledon – 17 years and 75 days
5. Aranxta Sanchez Vicario, 1989 French Open – 17 years and 174 days
6. Serena Williams, 1999 US Open – 17 years and 350 days
7. Steffi Graf, 1987 French Open – 17 years and 357 days
8. Emma Raducanu, 2021 US Open – 18 years and 302 days
9. Hana Mandlikova, 1980 Australian Open – 18 years and 329 days
10. Svetlana Kuznetsova, 2004 US Open – 19 years and 76 days