"When I said that I was not joking": Mirra Andreeva immortalises Andy Murray comment to be with her at all times

Mirra Andreeva (No. 43) recently commented on how she has immortalized Andy Murray's praise towards her. The 16-year-old teenager has had a great performance at the Madrid Open, with victories over Taylor Townsend (No. 58) and Linda Noskova (No. 31), both coming from a set down.

The young Russian marks one year since her incredible 2023 Madrid Open campaign, when in her first tournament as a professional, she reached the fourth round, defeating two top-20 players along the way before being eliminated by eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka.

The British player praised the young Russian earlier this year during the Australian Open. On that occasion, Andreeva had a notable performance with victories over Bernarda Pera 7-5, 6-2, and then over the 6th seed Ons Jabeur by 6-0, 6-2. In the third round, she had to turn the match around against Diane Parry to secure the victory in the third set tie-break.

Murray was surprised by Andreeva's resilience to stay in the match against Parry despite being in an almost unrecoverable disadvantage in the third set: "Maybe she turned the match around because she is hard on herself and demands more of herself when she’s losing/playing badly? Winner," Murray wrote at the time on X (formerly Twitter).

Andreeva reached the fourth round of the Australian Open but was eliminated by the 9th seed Barbora Krejcikova after a great tournament. While competing in Melbourne, the teenager mentioned that she would keep Murray's message with her: "I will try to print it out somehow. 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 said.

In an interview in Madrid with Tennis Channel after her recent victory over Noskova, Andreeva reflected on her feelings about having the three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray as her fan:

"When I said that I will put his comment in a frame, I actually have a frame now with his comment inside. It was a gift from my friend and she gave me a frame with his comment inside and it's always with me. It's in my bag. So, yeah, when I said that I was not joking. We did it for real," Andreeva told the Tennis Channel.

"After he won a challenger, I texted him,” she revealed on Tuesday. “I said, ‘Congratulations.’ He actually answered me, so I was really happy about it. He said, ‘Thank you, and good luck in Roland Garros.’ Maybe that's why I'm playing that good now!" Andreeva told the Tennis Channel.