Andreeva does her homework, wins easily; Gauff next
PARIS — Mirra Andreeva is the latest teen sensation in tennis, a 16-year-old Russian who is the youngest player to win a match in the women’s main draw at the French Open since 2005.
Do the math: That’s before she was born.
The 143rd-ranked Andreeva made her way through qualifying rounds last week without dropping a set to earn her debut berth in the women’s bracket at a Grand Slam tournament — and she still is making things look easy so far at Roland Garros. A 6-1, 6-2 victory over Diane Perry of France in 77 minutes on Thursday put her in the third round; that followed a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Alison Riske-amritraj of the U.S. that lasted 56 minutes.
Next up will be a contest against 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff, who beat Julia Grabher 6-2, 6-3. Gauff, a 19-year-old American, is seeded No. 6 and made her initial breakthrough by beating Venus Williams en route to the fourth round at Wimbledon at age 14.
Gauff is one of just 12 seeded women left in the field, the fewest to reach the third round at Roland Garros since the number of seeds expanded to 32 in 2002.
Before arriving in Paris, Andreeva showed what she can do by eliminating three players ranked in the Top 40 at the clay-court Madrid
Open.
She was asked Thursday during a news conference filled with one-liners: What’s the secret to success at such a young age?
“Maybe, as my coach says, to not be like a diva. To stay humble all the time,” said Andreeva, whose older sister, Erika, lost in the first round at Roland Garros this week.
And then Andreeva demonstrated what she meant by disputing the very premise of the question.
“I don’t think that I have a lot of success now,” she said, resting her cheek on her right hand. “I didn’t win any tournaments. I just play.”
In the match before Andreeva vs. Perry at Court Simonne Mathieu, another qualifier made it to the third round when Kayla Day, a Californian ranked 138th, knocked out No. 20 Madison Keys 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Keys, a semifinalist at the 2018 French Open, made 74 unforced errors.
The exits by seeded women continued with Bernarda Pera defeating No. 22 Donna Vekic 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, although No. 1 Iga Swiatek, No. 4 Elena Rybakina and No. 7 Ons Jabeur all advanced in straight sets.
The men’s bracket saw the departure of No. 8 Jannik Sinner with a wild 6-7 (0), 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 loss across nearly 5 hours against 79th-ranked Daniel Altmaier, and No. 18 Alex de Minaur was eliminated by Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3.