Adolescence doesn’t have to be hard. Just two months after turning 18, Mirra Andreeva was living her teenage dreams on the Centre Court grass, defeating Emma Navarro to become the youngest woman to reach the quarter-finals of the ladies’ singles since 2007, the year she was born.
Just the other day, Andreeva was saying it would “mean the world” to her if Roger
Federer could ever watch her play, and suddenly there he was, sitting in the front
row of the Royal Box in his suit and sunglasses.
This fourth round match, played in the early evening sunshine, could hardly have gone any better for Andreeva, who is yet to drop a set all Fortnight.
While so many of the other leading names in women’s tennis were defeated early in The Championships, the No.7 seed was looking smooth and composed as she beat her American opponent 6-2, 6-3.
If Andreeva can keep playing at this level – she next meets Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic on Wednesday – we could be looking at the first teenage winner of the Venus Rosewater Dish since Maria Sharapova in 2004.
On her first appearance on Centre Court, Andreeva only made two real errors. The first was glancing up at the Royal Box when she was leading by a set and 4-1, as she played some tight shots for a few minutes after she let her eyes drift in that direction.
“Honestly, it’s something crazy. I was super nervous playing on Centre Court for the first time. I tried not to look over there, in the box, because I knew that as soon as I looked there, I would completely lose my focus. I looked at 4-1 and saw Roger and Mirka,” Andreeva said in the on-court interview.
Standing at the microphone, Andreeva took the opportunity to address the Federers
directly: “Honestly, it means a lot to me that you came and watched my match. It’s
been one of my dreams to see you in real life.
"When I saw both of you I got really, really nervous but I’m super happy that I managed to keep focused. Mirka, I just want to say real quick that you look really pretty. I really like your outfit.”
Andreeva’s second big mistake was not realising she had won the match. While Centre Court was clapping and cheering, and Navarro was waiting at the net for the post-match handshake, Andreeva was still at the baseline, playing with her strings, in the zone or some other mental state, thinking that there was more tennis to be played.
All match, she had been telling herself that she was facing break points, as she thought that would help her to focus and fight, and while those fibs helped her psychologically, it also meant she lost track of the score, hence the confusion (and the smiles in her box).
Andreeva’s post-match remarks about her coach, Conchita Martinez, showed the warmth of their relationship. Andreeva was saying that she has been receiving some sound advice from Martinez, who was the champion here in 1994 and also coached Garbine Muguruza to the title in 2017.
With Martinez playing in the Invitation Doubles this week, Andreeva said she would be taking the opportunity to get her “revenge” by flipping their roles and coaching her coach.
Before you can do anything else on these lawns, you need to learn how to move on this surface and with every appearance the teenager seems to be more confident with her footwork. That allows her to play the aggressive lawn tennis that Martinez would like to see from her.
And with Andreeva serving at up to 121mph – by comparison, Navarro’s fastest serve of the day was 103mph – she was often dominant. Andreeva was rightly pleased with how she carried herself on Centre Court.
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