The whole tennis world is watching Russian prodigy Mirra Andreeva.
The 16-year-old is playing her first ever Australian Open main draw and just fought her way through to the fourth round, making a huge comeback and putting on an incredible show.
The 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 win even surprised Andreeva, who said she “didn’t really expect to come back” in the third set against France’s Diane Parry.
It was so intense that pulled her arm to her face in frustration and left a big bite mark after a backhand error early in the third set.
Another moment saw her throw her racket to the ground.
Andreeva revealed in a post-match press conference she had been “saying not good words to myself” during the match but believes that harshness pushed her to win.
British tennis legend Andy Murray took to X, formerly Twitter, to defend the young star when a commentator said she was too hard on herself and “really needs to work on the mental side of her game”
“Maybe the reason she turned the match round is because of her mental strength,” Murray wrote.
“Maybe she turned the match around because she is hard on herself and demands more of herself when she’s losing/playing badly? Winner.”
The teen couldn’t have been happier to learn Murray was watching her match, let alone posting positively about her.
“Honestly, I will try to print it out somehow,” she told reporters. “I don’t know, I will put it in a frame. I will bring it everywhere with me. I will maybe put it on the wall so I can see it every day.”
Andreeva dropped the first set 1-6 but roared back in the second, securing a quick double break to take it 6-1.
It looked like the match was getting away from her as Parry raced to a 5-1 lead in the deciding set, but Andreeva wasn’t done yet.
She fought back and secured a break when Parry was serving for the match at 5-4, holding her own serve to tie it up at 5-5.
Parry was clearly fuming at herself as she dropped another game, allowing Andreeva an opportunity to serve for the match at 6-5.
But remarkably Parry broke back, bringing the match to a deciding 10-point tie-break.
From there, Parry made more unforced errors and allowed Andreeva to take the tie-break 10-5 for a spot in the Round of 16.
“At 5-1, I don’t know, I just tried to win at least one more game to not go 6-1, 1-6, 6-1,” Andreeva said.
“Then 5-2, she has match points. I’m going to the net. I’m thinking, Am I crazy? I’m going to the net on match point. But then she missed a ball.”
She said she was running on “the adrenaline, the desire, the feeling” that she wanted to win.
Andreeva only made her grand slam main draw debut at the French Open last year and reached the third round, then the fourth round at Wimbledon and the second round at the US Open.
At just 16 years old, she has been touted as “the next big thing” but the humble teen doesn’t think what she is doing is a big deal.
“I mean, fourth round, yes, I’m 16, maybe it’s a bit new. Honestly, I don’t think that I did something amazing. I’m just trying to win a match. I’m just trying to fight,” she said on Friday.
“Fourth round is nothing. Maybe if I win a slam, I have to win three more matches, and it’s really tough to win seven matches in a row. I don’t think that I did something incredible (but) I have time to do it, I hope.”
Andreeva will face ninth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova in the fourth round.
