"Only 16, keep an eye on her": Mirra Andreeva gets Chris Evert seal of approval after Jabeur thrashing at Australian Open

Tennis legend and former World No.1, Chris Evert was one of many who were heaping praise on 16-year-old prodigy, Mirra Andreeva and called for tennis fans to stay peeled on her exploits on court.

Andreeva thrashed Ons Jabeur 6-0, 6-2 on Wednesday morning in her best win by ranking of her career, a first against a top 10 players. She was left in tears 12 months ago at the Australian Open after losing out to Alina Korneeva in the girls final who lost to Beatriz Haddad Maia in thes econd round herself.

But since then, she has gone from strength to strength with runs to the Last 32 in Roland Garros, Wimbledon and now the Australian Open in just over a year. After emerging at the Madrid Open last year, she has been brought even closer to the tennis masses after this week despite some stating that tweets saying 'remember the name' for instance by Roland Garros are puzzling given her run in Paris and also being well known anyway.

But for those unaware of the teenager, she has got the seal of approval from one of the best of all time as she prepares to face Diane Parry in a winnable third round after getting rid of the seed in her section of the draw.

"Mirra Andreeva is GOOD... Only 16, keep an eye on her!" said Evert in a post on X.

Despite not showing it on court, Andreeva herself was nervous beforehand and said she exceeded her own expectations. "I was really nervous before the match, because I'm really inspired by Ons, by the way she plays. In the first set, I showed amazing tennis. I honestly didn't expect that from myself. I just wanted to go and play on this big court for the second time, just to enjoy tennis, just to enjoy the time, and I did," she said in her on-court interview.