Mirra
Andreeva (No. 43) recently commented on how she has immortalized Andy Murray's
praise towards her. The 16-year-old teenager has had a great performance at the
Madrid Open, with victories over Taylor Townsend (No. 58) and Linda Noskova
(No. 31), both coming from a set down.
The
young Russian marks one year since her incredible 2023 Madrid Open campaign,
when in her first tournament as a professional, she reached the fourth round,
defeating two top-20 players along the way before being eliminated by eventual
champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Andy
Murray's praise for Andreeva
The British player praised the young Russian
earlier this year during the Australian Open. On that occasion, Andreeva had a
notable performance with victories over Bernarda Pera 7-5, 6-2, and then over
the 6th seed Ons Jabeur by 6-0, 6-2. In the third round, she had to turn the
match around against Diane Parry to secure the victory in the third set
tie-break.
Murray
was surprised by Andreeva's resilience to stay in the match against Parry despite
being in an almost unrecoverable disadvantage in the third set: "Maybe she
turned the match around because she is hard on herself and demands more of
herself when she’s losing/playing badly? Winner," Murray wrote at the time
on X (formerly Twitter).
Andreeva
reached the fourth round of the Australian Open but was eliminated by the 9th
seed Barbora Krejcikova after a great tournament. While competing in Melbourne,
the teenager mentioned that she would keep Murray's message with her: "I
will try to print it out somehow. I don't know, I will put it in a frame. I
will bring it everywhere with me. I will maybe put it on the wall so I can see
it every day," Andreeva said.
Andreeva reached her career-best ranking in February 2024 as the world No. 33.
In an
interview in Madrid with Tennis Channel after her recent victory over Noskova,
Andreeva reflected on her feelings about having the three-time Grand Slam champion
Andy Murray as her fan:
"When I said that I will put his comment in a
frame, I actually have a frame now with his comment inside. It was a gift from
my friend and she gave me a frame with his comment inside and it's always with
me. It's in my bag. So, yeah, when I said that I was not joking. We did it for
real," Andreeva told the Tennis Channel.
"After he won a challenger, I texted him,” she
revealed on Tuesday. “I said, ‘Congratulations.’ He actually answered me, so I
was really happy about it. He said, ‘Thank you, and good luck in Roland
Garros.’ Maybe that's why I'm playing that good now!" Andreeva told the
Tennis Channel.