MELBOURNE, Australia – When Mirra Andreeva won the title in Adelaide last weekend, it didn’t take her long to discover that three of the past four winners of that title have won the Australian Open that same year. This also applies to Madison Keys, who was a surprise champion in Melbourne twelve months ago.
“Yes, I know that [about it]she told ESPN in an interview at Melbourne Park after winning her first-round match on Monday. ‘I try not to think about it because we are different people, different players. I try to keep my mind off that.”
Andreeva marched into the third round here on Wednesday, crushing former world number 3 Maria Sakkari 6-0, 6-4. But her reluctance to consider an Adelaide-Australian Open double may stem from the fact that until recently she was one of the more superstitious players on Tour.
“Sometimes I could really go crazy,” she said. “Like eating the same thing, waking up at the same time, doing everything at the same time. But in Adelaide I broke the routine on purpose to see what would happen. And nothing bad happened. So after that, I’m just not going to spend my time on that kind of thing.”
Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff remain favorites for the title here this year, but Andreeva is rising quickly. Three years ago she lost in the final of the girls’ event at the Australian Open; now, after a year in which she won two WTA 1000 titles and reached the quarter-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon, she sits in eighth place and looks headed to a last eight match against Gauff.
Expectations bring pressure, but Andreeva seems to be able to handle it now. She is less likely to explode on the court or lose concentration as she has in the past, as she showed when recovering from a set down to beat Donna Vekic in the first round.
It was difficult to deal with pressure at first, she said, but now she is learning to deal with all the expectations on her shoulders. “I feel like it was harder for me before because it was all new to me, and I didn’t really know that that was normal or what to do with it,” she admitted. ‘But now, over time, I also talk to Conchita a lot [Martinez, her coach]who is a very experienced coach and also a very experienced player, with my psychologist, with my team… I just know it’s normal. I’m going to get busy defending points or defending titles or whatever comes to mind [but] I just have to learn to accept it and play with it. And that’s it.”
Martinez has been a key figure in her rise to the top 10. The former Wimbledon champion seems as relaxed off the court as Andreeva; the pair were even spotted chasing each other through the corridors of Melbourne Park just before the match with Sakkari. Quiet but organized and a top tactician, Martinez helped Garbine Muguruza win Wimbledon in 2017 and coached Karolina Pliskova for two years.
“I think our personalities also match because we both strive for the same things,” Andreeva said. “Off the field, we like to joke around and have a lot of fun. At the same time, we both understand that when we get on the field or when we go out on the field, you can have fun on the practice court. But it’s more about how we can work on something, how we can improve what we’re working on. And we kind of know the line where it’s time to stop having fun and joking and it’s really time to start working. I think that’s why it works quite well.”
Andreeva is known for her on-field interviews, which are almost worth the ticket price alone. “I can say I’ve been like that my whole life,” she said. “I like to joke a lot and I also like to annoy people. It’s just me. It’s just who I am, my personality just comes out there.”
Andreeva will play Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the third round on Friday. Although a Grand Slam title is Andreeva’s goal, she also wants to avoid serious injuries.
“First and foremost, I would say my goal would be to stay healthy, play freely, without pain,” she said. “And also to enjoy every match I play, and to learn new things. My goal would be to get better every day as a tennis player and also as a person. And then I think if I do everything right, if I do everything the right way, good things will probably come. I hope so.”
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