Andreeva continues to defend the chances of the modern teen -tennis -Wunderkinds | tennis

THere are two teenagers in the top 100 in the WTA ranking. The women’s tennis is in a way based on the success of his child prodigy -Chris Evert, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and the Williams Sisters -who boldly stormed to the top in their youth and demanded attention.

These days are long over. Between the improved depth, physicality and professionalism on the lower levels, possibly a more sparse talent pool and the rules of age of the WTA, which restrict the number of tournaments that a child can contest, it becomes increasingly difficult to lift the ranking lists so early.

For these reasons, the first three months of the season were fascinating. Mirra Andreeva continued to defy trends and patterns on Sunday by winning the biggest title of her career at Indian Wells at the age of 17.

It is difficult to overdo the importance of this performance. A few weeks after winning her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai last month, Andreeva triumphed in California by playing and surpassing the two best players in the world, in successive three-set games to win the title. She now has a winning series of 12 games and has risen to No. 6 with a ball.

Before Andreeva, two players under the age of 18 had hit the two top two in a WTA event: Steffi Graf and Serena Williams. The other teenager among the top 100 is the 18-year-old Australian Maya-Joint with No. 80.

Despite her youth, it still feels like Andreeva has not missed any steps in her development and her latest form is on schedule. Andreeva broke through two years ago and defeated two top 20 players in the fourth round of the 2023 Madrid Open. Since then she has quickly climbed into the ranking, reached the French Open semi-final and broke out into the top 20 last year. The obstacles with which they were confronted and the difficult lessons were drawn on their way were just as important in their growth. She has suffered many difficult losses that sharpen her game and strengthened her character.

From the moment she dived on the tour, it was clear that Andreeva was blessed with a unique improvisatory game. It has a large selection of shots, intelligent point constructions and the ability to redirect the ball sweet too time and the pace, especially with its evil, two -handed backhand. Her game was sometimes underpinned against the top players, but when she continues to grow to an adult and gains physical strength, she made considerable offensive improvements. Her increased ball speed and shot this year made it possible for her to trade with the best players from the base line.

This growth was particularly visible in the last phases of their title. Against Swiatek, Andreeva was spectacular under terrible windy conditions and overwhelmed the rod from the baseline when she loaded the backhand winners from all parts of the courtyard. The additional pace at her first serve was amazing; The 126 km / h ass, which she met in the first tiebreak, is one of the fastest services of all time. After a set against Sabalenka, Andreeva sucked the enormous lines of the world No. 1 professionally, served again well and dragged the Belar in unpleasant parts of the farm with its drop shots and low shots. Andreeva’s game has already been completed at such a young age.

The dynamics that Andreeva built has a lot to do with its flourishing partnership with the 1994 Wimbledon Champion Conchita Martínez, with which Andreeva frequently planned during her interviews on the square. Apart from the fact that she was a high -quality trainer -she helped Garbiñe Muguruza to a Wimbledon title in 2017 -she seems a pleasant person with whom she can work.

After Elena Rybakina’s former coach, Stefano Vukov, was banned by the WTA for a year due to a supposedly emotionally abusive behavior, her success underlines the importance of trainers in women’s tennis, of which there is still too little.

Indian Wells 2025 will represent two young talents who characterize themselves as true competitors on the world stage. The next challenge for Andreeva and Jack Draper is simply to continue. The Miami Open Raupläsung started in action with Naomi Osaka on Tuesday. While Emma Raducanu plays her first game against 19-year-old Japanese Wildcard-Sayaka Ishii on Wednesday, Andreeva and the other players set have received a goodbye in the first round.

In the indefination of the men, which is presented to Miami by Novak Djokovic to Miami for the first time since 2019, Draper will begin his persecution of the “Sunshine Double” against Jakub Mensik or Roberto Bautista Agut.

The reality of being a top player and consistently deep runs with the greatest events is that you have less time to think about these successes.