There are two teenagers in the top 100 of the WTA rankings at the moment. Women’s tennis, in some ways, was built on the success of its child prodigies – Chris Evert, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters – who audaciously stormed towards the top in their youth, demanding attention.
Those days are long gone. Between the improved depth, physicality and professionalism at the lower levels, possibly a more sparse talent pool and the WTA’s age eligibility rules restricting the number of tournaments a child can contest, it is increasingly more difficult to flit up the rankings so early.
For those reasons, the first three months of the season have been fascinating. Mirra Andreeva continued to defy trends and patterns on Sunday by winning the biggest title of her career at Indian Wells at 17 years old.
It is difficult to overstate the significance of this achievement. A few weeks after winning her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai last month, Andreeva triumphed in California by outplaying and outsmarting Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, the two best players in the world, in consecutive three-set matches to win the title. She is now on a 12-match winning streak and has risen to No 6 with a bullet.
Before Andreeva, two players under 18 had beaten the top two in a WTA event: Steffi Graf and Serena Williams. The other teenager in the top 100, meanwhile, is the 18-year-old Australian Maya Joint, at No 80.
Despite her youth, it still feels like Andreeva has not missed any steps in her development and her recent form is right on schedule. Two years ago, Andreeva broke through, defeating two top 20 players en-route to the fourth round of the 2023 Madrid Open. Since then, she has rapidly risen up the rankings, reaching the French Open semi-finals and breaking into the top 20 last year. The obstacles she has faced and the tough lessons learned on her path have been just as important in her growth. She has endured plenty of difficult losses that sharpened her game and strengthened her character.
From the moment she emerged on the tour, it was clear Andreeva was blessed with a unique improvisational game. She possesses a large variety of shots, intelligent point construction and the ability to time the ball sweetly and redirect pace, particularly with her wicked two-handed backhand. Her game was sometimes underpowered against the top players, but as she continues to grow into an adult and gain physical strength, she has made significant offensive improvements. Her increased ball speed and weight of shot this year have allowed her to trade from the baseline with the best players as equals.
That growth was particularly on show in the final stages of her title run. Against Swiatek, Andreeva was spectacular in horrendous windy conditions, overpowering the Pole from the baseline as she lasered down-the-line backhand winners from all parts of the court. The added pace on her first serve was astonishing; the 126mph ace she struck in the first-set tiebreak is one of the fastest women’s serves of all time. After trailing by a set against Sabalenka, Andreeva expertly soaked up the world No 1’s enormous strokes, again serving well and dragging the Belarusian into uncomfortable parts of the court with her drop shots and low slices. At such a young age, Andreeva’s game is already complete.
The momentum Andreeva has built has much to do with her blossoming partnership with the 1994 Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martínez, who Andreeva has frequently bantered with during her on-court interviews. Aside from being a quality coach – she helped Garbiñe Muguruza to a Wimbledon title in 2017 – she seems an enjoyable person to work with.
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After Elena Rybakina’s former coach, Stefano Vukov, was banned by the WTA for a year due to alleged emotionally abusive behaviour, which he denied, their success underlines the importance of female coaches in women’s tennis, of which there are still too few.
Indian Wells 2025 will represent two young talents marking themselves as true contenders on the world stage. The next challenge for Andreeva and Jack Draper is simply to move on. The Miami Open main draw began on Tuesday with Naomi Osaka in action. While Emma Raducanu plays her first match against the 19-year-old Japanese wildcard Sayaka Ishii on Wednesday, Andreeva and the other seeded players have received a first-round bye.
In the men’s draw, which will showcase Novak Djokovic’s return to Miami for the first time since 2019, Draper will begin his pursuit of the “Sunshine Double” against either Jakub Mensik or Roberto Bautista Agut in round two.
The reality of being a top player and consistently making deep runs in the biggest events is that they have less time to reflect on those successes.
