After defeating Clara Tauson in February to win the first Masters 1000 title of the season, 17-year-old phenom Mirra Andreeva became a top-10 player for the first time in her young career. She joked in her on-court interview that doing so meant she'd already accomplished her primary goal for the season. In the moment, that felt like a sensible benchmark, impressively achieved. Three weeks later, having completed a stunning run through the best players in the world to win in Indian Wells, Andreeva looks to have been selling herself short.
Andreeva's run to her second title of the year was phenomenal. She dropped six total games against Tauson and Elena Rybakina over the third and fourth rounds, and dispatched the red-hot Elina Svitolina to set up a foreboding summit push: a semifinal against Iga Swiatek and a potential final against Aryna Sabalenka. Neither had dropped a set until facing Andreeva. Ripping through the rest of the WTA elite is one thing, but the world's best two players stand head and shoulders above the field, especially with Coco Gauff still struggling with her serve. Swiatek and Sabalenka each present distinct problems for opponents to solve, and each is capable of bullying opponents off the court with relative ease. Last year's U.S. Open final made clear how wide the gap between one and four is.
Andreeva's semifinal against Swiatek was frigid and windy, and Andreeva held her nerve while Swiatek melted down. The teen was smacking around her world-class backhand and troubling Swiatek with her big serve, but most impressively, she was problem-solving her way out of trouble and into good positions all match long. Andreeva was particularly effective with her forehand slice, a crisp shot that forced Swiatek to make plays in the dire conditions and compounded her frustration.
She ported that confidence over into the final, though she quickly learned that Sabalenka is a totally different opponent to contend with. The 6–2 first set must have felt achingly familiar, as two of Andreeva's three losses this season have come against Sabalenka, including an ass-kicking in Australia where Andreeva took three total games.
The way she turned Sunday's match around was extremely impressive. Andreeva's backhand is a pure stroke, and watching her send Sabalenka around the court with it was satisfying in the same way watching an ax cleave through firewood can be. She hits it so cleanly, even on the run, even off a return, following through hard and pinging it with venom into the corners and along the sidelines. She pounded Sabalenka with the shot, and when it wasn't available, she trusted her world-class defense and sent back dozens of lobs and slices within feet of the baseline, forcing Sabalenka to duff the ball into the net.
The match felt like it hinged on Andreeva's service game at 3–2 in the second set. Down 0–30, Andreeva leveled with two huge serve-plus-ones, showing the easy power and confidence she has as a server. Sabalenka forced a forehand error, then another a couple of points later to earn another break point. The Belarusian crusher was pushing every neutral shot deep into the court, and Andreeva was instantly behind in any rally she didn't start off with an advantage. Facing break point, Andreeva hit the shot of the match, a sprinting counter–drop shot fizzing horizontally over the net and onto the far edge of the line. Sabalenka gawked in disbelief, then watched Andreeva close another point at the net then dominate with the serve to consolidate her lead.
Sabalenka had plenty of moments, breaking Andreeva's serve to open the third set and then holding at love a few games later. But Andreeva matched her best stuff and found she had more answers, breaking back and even matching the hold at love. She has the game to hang against the best players in the world, but also the confidence to keep relying on the core tenets of that game even up against waves of intense pressure.
After the win, Andreeva thanked a long list of people, ending with the woman in the arena: herself. "I would again like to thank myself for fighting until the end and for always believing in me and for never quitting," she said. Maybe that seems egotistical, though I see it as terrifyingly realistic, in the sense that she's identified the looming possibility that every match she plays may soon be on her racquet to win or lose.
