Former world number one
Martina Hingis is full of praise for
Russia’s young tennis star
Mirra Andreeva.
The 16-year-old has impressed everyone during the 2023
Wimbledon where she was eventually knocked out from the round of 16 after
losing to America’s Madison Keys with a score of 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 on Monday.
The five-time Grand Slam winner Hingis heaped praise on Andreeva,
who according to her is ‘very disciplined’ despite her young age.
“I’ve seen a lot of her because she played a couple of ITF
tournaments in Switzerland,” she said. “So I saw when she made this little
breakthrough, then fourth round in Madrid, qualifying at the French, here
fourth round. It’s great to see a 16-year-old doing so well.
I like her game, she’s a pretty girl and it’s nice to see,
also for the people, to see someone like this, to see that it’s still possible
being young and doing well. She’s very disciplined. She focuses well, she’s got
all the shots. Sometimes, when I have watched her, she’s quite far behind.
“In that way, she’s not like me, I mean, I would like to see
her being more aggressive and pushing (the issue), but she doesn’t miss, she’s
like a wall so it’s hard to get through her. It’s something that she can maybe
improve in the future to take more charge and and attack when she has the
chance to do it.”
Although she exited the competition in the fourth round,
the Krasnoyarsk-born produced some impressive results. In the round of 128, she
defeated Wang Xiyu of China with a score of 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
In the second round, she was awarded a walkover against
Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova. In that game, Andreeva won the first set
with a score of 6-3 and was leading in the second (4-0).
In the third round, the youngster outclassed fellow Russian Anastasia
Potapova with a score of 6-2, 7-5.