"Before, I was playing for a do": Mirra Andreeva's wait to get pet dog continues despite recent on-court heroics

Russia’s Mirra Andreeva has revealed that she is still waiting to get a dog, which her mother promised to her. The 17-year-old is regarded as the one for the future and has already produced some impressive performances on the court.

Andreeva is currently participating in a WTA 1000 event—Indian Wells—in California. She has already booked her place in the final after beating the reigning world number two, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, with a score of 7-6, 1-6, 6-3. Speaking to The Tennis Channel after her quarterfinal win against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, Andreeva revealed an interesting story about how she is still waiting to get a dog for herself.

The youngster was promised by her mother that she would get a dog once she broke into the top-20 in the WTA rankings, which she did last year after taking part in the China Open. Andreeva revealed that previously, she used to look at the live rankings after every match to see how long she would have to wait before finally getting a dog, but now her preferences have changed.

"I was always checking live rankings, because before, I was playing for a dog," she said, "so after every match I play, I would check the live rankings to see if I did it. But now it's not that I don't care, but I try to not focus on that, and I try to focus on the match that I have to play. I like this. I would say it's pretty easy, because I don't think about the rankings or the points I have to defend if I have to, so I just don't really follow the rankings or anything, like this is a bit easier for me. I'm thinking to get an ultra mini labradoodle. It's going to be a Labrador mixed with poodle, and it's ultra mini, so going to be even smaller than a mini version. It's going to take time until the dog that I want will be born. We wait for now."