Adelaide International | Mirra Andreeva crushes Maya Joint to set up semi-final with doubles partner

Mirra Andreeva will face off against her doubles partner, Diana Shnaider in the semi-finals of the Adelaide International after the 18-year-old crushed another fellow rising talent in Maya Joint who was on home soil but unlike Kimberly Birrell, it is not a semi-final for her.

Birrell harnessed the crowd earlier in the day as she took down Jaqueline Cristian in a three hour epic and will now face off against Victoria Mboko in the semi-finals who herself saw off defending champion Madison Keys earlier in the piece.

But Joint who heads into this year under new pressure as the Aussie No.1 and alongside Alex de Minaur harbours the spirit of the Aussie nation couldn't thwart a quite brilliant Andreeva. The 19-year-old American born Aussie saw off Ajla Tomljanovic basically by walkover with the latter retiring 2-0 up and Sofia Kenin in two sets after a pretty up and down United Cup which saw illness become an issue for most of the camp.

Joint couldn't play most of her singles games due to illness and neither could her back-ups either leaving it to Storm Hunter, a doubles player by trade to pick up the slack as they reached the latter stages. Looking more herself this week, Joint reached the Quarter-Finals but only won two games as Andreeva was unstoppable.

Winning 6-2, 6-0, the writing was on the wall early as Joint narrowly survived a tough opening service game saving four break points. Andreeva kept pressing Joint though claiming back-to-back breaks to go 4-1 up before the latter got one break back in the seventh game.

But this was almost all she wrote as Andreeva honed in from there after a close opening stanza despite the scoreline as she won the next eight games to truly dominate winning in style in straight sets in a match that lasted just over an hour.

Joint admitted pre match that she would have to perhaps think on the fly and adjust her game style. "I'll start off playing my game, and then if that doesn't work then I'll try and find something different," said the Aussie.

But that didn't work as Andreeva was wise to it and this comes after Andreeva thrashed Marie Bouzkova 6-3, 6-1 and heads into the latter stages as the favourite for the second title of the season.

In the other half would be an intriguing final match up no matter how you look at it as Victoria Mboko facing Andreeva would be a meeting between the two players who are holding the candle for the rising next generation of female tennis superstars. Others including Alexandra Eala and Iva Jovic aren't there this week and Joint of course has been taken care of by Andreeva so it will be the two players who have made the most strides in the past year or so facing off.

Or it could be Kimberly Birrell with the 27-year-old seeming to come alive during the Aussie summer albeit given the hammering that Andreeva gave to Joint, it seems the crowd is not a factor for the Russian. Next up though is a certain test that Andreeva won't relish.

That being Diana Shnaider. She will have to put friendship aside in this one with her compatriot being her doubles partner and also a close friend. They won a silver medal together at the Olympic Games and are a top doubles duo who competed at the WTA Finals this past November together in lieu of Andreeva somewhat throwing away her chance in the singles.

But Andreeva has won their sole meeting in 2024 in Brisbane so holds the cards likely. Albeit Shnaider who saw off Emma Navarro is coming back to some semblance of her best after a poor 2025 so it will be very intriguing.