Mumbai: In this wild, wild French Open where the defending champion crashed in the first week and the world No.1 imploded early in the second, a teenager has held the fort for the top seeds in the women’s draw.
That’s saying something about Mirra Andreeva, a hugely talented but also, as recent history suggested, highly volatile 19-year-old who had been primed for Grand Slam glory in the near future. On Thursday, she stood one step away from the crown.
The world No.8 Russian outplayed Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, the 15th seed who hadn’t been beaten on clay this season and brushed aside Andreeva in the Madrid Open final a month ago, 6-1, 6-3 to make her first Slam final.
She is the third-youngest Roland Garros singles finalist of this century. Alongside her on Saturday will be Maja Chwalinska, only the second female qualifier to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open era. The world No.114’s stunning run in Paris continued as she beat Diana Schnaider 7-6(4), 6-4 in the second semi-final. The crafty, unorthodox left-handed Pole is bound to ask some different questions to Andreeva, who had all the answers in her semi-final.
Except when Kostyuk’s ball sailed long on match point and she flung her racquet in the air, raised both her arms and teared up after the no-handshake finish, it was a composed and clinical show by Andreeva that belied her age, the stage and those past mental meltdowns.
Instances of the youngster self-destructing he mind and eventually the match due to external variables are plenty (mind you, she was, and still is, a teen), but we’ll take one from last year at the same Slam.
Playing French wildcard Lois Boisson in the quarter-final, Andreeva was in control at 5-3 in the first set. Boisson saved a set point, took it to a tie-breaker and won it. The crowd cheering loudly for their own, Andreeva smacked the ball in frustration. As the spectators continued to get to her, she whacked another ball in the stands, asked a member of her team to leave, and blew another lead in the second set and soon the match.
Contrast that to this day, where another uncontrollable element arrived at a key moment. Andreeva was cruising at 6-1, 4-1 when Kostyuk, troubled by the windy conditions, was freeing up and the roof was closing. Kostyuk saved a break point to hold, and then broke Andreeva to love. The crowd roared, and her opponent closed in at 4-3.
In the past, Andreeva has been tough on herself and her box even in comfortable match situations, and it’s in such intense moments that her emotions tend to boil over.
Contrast that to this day, where Andreeva simply walked over, without gesturing or uttering anything towards her box, to receive serve. After a double fault and a couple of wide forehands by Kostyuk, Andreeva unleashed an inside-out forehand followed by a smash at the net. She was up on the scoreboard again. Conchita Martinez, her coach, was up on her feet.
The former Wimbledon champion has been behind the wheels of this talent’s rise. Wheels that went into fifth gear early last season when Andreeva won back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells. Suddenly, she went from a top-50 prospect to a top-5 star, from being the next-big-thing to the now-big-thing.
Eyeballs and expectations on her soared as she turned up at the big stages thereafter. And even though the Russian had the game to back that up, she perhaps lacked the mental composure at that point.
Contrast that to this day, where Andreeva, motoring along in the draw even as other top-10 seeds exited, ran into an opponent whom she had lost to twice this year.
The mind was “very nervous”, as she said later, and the conditions, changing from sunny to gloomy and roof open to close amid gusty winds, were extremely tricky.
“I just told myself no matter what happens,” Andreeva said on court, “I am going to fight and give my best.”
She did that from the get-go, even as both players took time to adapt to the wind. But while the double-faulting Kostyuk was broken in the opening game, Andreeva dug herself out from 0-40. While Kostyuk was struggling to control the direction of her groundstrokes, Andreeva was slicing and sliding in drop shot-lob combinations.
Andreeva attacked her second serves (she won 66% of the points), defended solidly from the baseline (she won 25 points to Kostyuk’s 13 of rallies between 5-8 shots), and controlled the ball a lot better (she had 22 unforced errors to Kostyuk’s 34).
Andreeva was 4-0 up in 16 minutes in the first set. She was 4-1 up again in the second when Kostyuk threatened a comeback. Andreeva, though, wasn’t wilting away this time. Instead, she was waltzing into her first Grand Slam final. “It’s amazing, I’ve never felt anything like this before,” said Andreeva.
