"I’m trying to approach Roland Garros as just another tournament that I won" - Mirra Andreeva struggling to get out of French Open bubble

Mirra Andreeva has enjoyed a brilliant 2026 campaign, although it has fizzled out in recent times. Since that magical clay swing culminated with a Roland Garros title, the 19-year-old admitted that she was not playing her best with the Grand Slam success still very much on her mind.

The Russian bossed her opening match of the Cincinnati Open, breezing past Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-1, 6-0 in a truly dominant and one-sided performance.

It is just a second showing at the Cincinnati Open following her debut campaign in 2024 where she reached the quarter-final stage. She skipped the event last year, allowing a chance to gain some valuable points and challenge for a third Masters 1000 title.

Andreeva won the final seven games against the Ukrainian to progress with flying colours. The fifth seed has serious aspirations of winning the biggest titles on offer, and the US Open is one of them. She has never made it past the third round in three attempts at Flushing Meadows and will hope that this Cincinnati showing gives her the platform to push off from enroute to New York.

Speaking after the second round win, Andreeva admitted that the Roland Garros triumph was still on her mind as she tried to focus on the next tournament at hand.

“After I won in Paris, the first few tournaments were not easy because I was still sometimes thinking, ‘Wow, I won! Yay! Great!’ Considering how I’ve played since, that’s not the best,” she said.

“I was talking about it with my psychologist and with my [coach] Conchita [Martinez]. I’m trying to approach Roland Garros as just another tournament that I won. I hope that will help me, and I can move on.”

She had played a lot of matches on clay, and she needed a break from the sport to rest and reset. “I took some time off — almost two weeks,” she stated. “I didn’t do anything physical. I didn’t even think about tennis. My racquets were still in my suitcase. I didn’t even unpack them. I didn’t want to look at them. I just took some time for myself.”

One of the things she did in her off-time was go to fellow tennis player Daria Kasatkina's wedding which proved to be a very enjoyable event. “Dasha’s wedding, it was unbelievable,” Andreeva commented before stating her favourite part.

"I guess all the dancing that we did, meeting a lot of new people, meeting their families, and just spending time with people that I enjoy spending time with,” she said. “I was super happy and grateful that I got an invitation to see and experience the probably the most important moment of their lives. Everyone got so comfortable. We were doing whatever the hell we wanted. We were dancing until 3 a.m. I’m just so happy that I was able to go and experience all of that.”

Following her second round Wimbledon exit, she was in desperate need of that break. A much longer one than she had experienced in her career, Andreeva is now learning to switch off from the sport from time to time. “All my life, the only break from tennis that I had was maybe two, three days, and if we would go on vacation, we would still play every day to not lose the feeling of the ball,” she said. “Now I’m kind of learning something new, that it’s also important to not think about tennis, not play tennis. Then after, you actually feel better on the court mentally and physically.”

Andreeva continues her progress in the Cincinnati Open with the number 32 seed Janice Tjen her next task.