Mirra Andreeva (No. 23) suffered an early exit at the WTA
500
Bad Homburg Open, losing to Ukrainian
Dayana Yastremska (No. 27) 4-6, 6-4,
6-3. The 17-year-old teenager was up a set but couldn't maintain her level and
ended up conceding in her only grass-court match before
Wimbledon.
The Russian had only scheduled Bad Homburg as her
preparatory tournament for Wimbledon and will have to start her campaign at
SW19 without much experience on the surface. In Andreeva's short career, this
was only her second grass-court tournament, following her participation in the
2023 Wimbledon, where she passed through the three qualifying rounds and then
reached the fourth round of the main draw, defeating the 10th seed Barbora
Krejcikova and the 22nd seed
Anastasia Potapova.
Yastremska rallies to defeat Andreeva
Yastremska also came into the match with little grass-court
practice, having only played in last week's Berlin Ladies Open, where she was
the top seed in the qualifying draw but lost her first match to Zeynep Sonmez,
failing to make the main draw.
However, from the first set against Andreeva, both players
showed good confidence on the surface. The Russian teenager only dropped four
points on her serve throughout the set and secured the only break in the ninth
game, taking the first set 6-4.
It seemed like it wouldn't be too complicated a day for
Andreeva, a recent French Open semifinalist who appears ready to take a leap
forward on the Tour. However, an unfortunate break in the fourth game started
to shift momentum towards Yastremska, who even went up 5-2.
Andreeva recovered the break and was 4-5 on serve, but the
Ukrainian capitalized on the tense moments to secure a new break to love and
close the set 6-4. Both players were effective when they had opportunities,
with Andreeva converting her only break chance, while Yastremska took both of
hers.
![copyright proshots 21598631](https://r.testifier.nl/Acbs8526SDKI/resizing_type:fit/width:1280/plain/https://s3-newsifier.ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com/tennisuptodate.com/images/2023-07/copyright-proshots-21598631-64abe6420eef7.jpg@webp)
Mirra Andreeva at 2023 Wimbledon.
In the third set, Andreeva seemed much closer to victory,
with a 64% first-serve percentage, winning 72% of those points, compared to
Yastremska's 45% first-serve percentage, winning 69% of those points. But
tennis is decided in the crucial moments, and that's where the Ukrainian
secured the win.
Yastremska struggled to stay in the set and held her serve
until reaching 4-3, saving several break points along the way. Andreeva seemed
much stronger on serve, but in the eighth game, she was inconsistent, and
Yastremska got the decisive break to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in over two hours.
Andreeva now heads to London to prepare for her Wimbledon
participation next week, arriving with only one official match played on grass.
Meanwhile, Yastremska awaits the winner between former world No. 1 Angelique
Kerber (No. 224) and young Russian Diana Shnaider (No. 49).