Mirra Andreeva sealed her first WTA title on Friday, July 26 with Elina Avanesyan retiring mid way through their final at the
Iasi Open in Romania.
Andreeva and Avanesyan were superb for two sets but the wall came for the latter Russian as she suffered a knee issue after two hours and 19 minutes. Albeit the 17-year-old who becomes the youngest title winner since Coco Gauff on the WTA tour will be semi relieved.
She had to start her final three hours later than billed and having to head to the Olympic Games where she plays singles then women's and mixed doubles with Diana Shnaider and Daniil Medvedev, it is very much a busy time.
But also after the disappointment of Wimbledon, she opted for matches over just playing the Olympic Games and given that she reached the semi-finals of Roland Garros in May, she will be one of the favourites. She hilariously showed her personality off during her post match speech as she thanked herself over anybody else in her team for toiling throughout the week.
Against Olga Danilovic in particular, she struggled and had to survive multiple match points. But it is often the scares that provide the biggest tonic for players and seemed to be the case for Andreeva.
"At the last but not least, I would also like to thank me for always fighting till the end especially today with such a tough battle from Elina. Also, I would like to thank me for not quitting and just staying out there and fighting my, I don’t know if I can say this, a** off. So yeah, just thanks to me," Andreeva said.
"Thanks to everyone for this week, it was an amazing week for me. For sure, it’s going to stay in my heart for a very very long time," she added.