Getty Image / Julian Finney
Every once in a while, the sports world gets a youngster that is absolutely can’t miss, even for someone who doesn’t know a lot about that particular sport. Insert 16-year-old tennis superstar Mirra Andreeva, who pulled off an unreal comeback at the Australian Open and is the best tennis player her age I’ve ever seen.
This isn’t Adreeva’s first foray deep into a grand slam, as the Russian teenager reached the 4th round at Wimbledon last year. But, her insane, come-from-behind win over Frenchwoman Diane Parry, 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-5) in the 3rd round of the Australian Open announced her arrival as someone who is going to be a worldwide sports superstar.
I actually stayed up to watch this match that trickled into Friday morning on the East Coast. I am a tennis fan during the four majors, and knew her name. Plus, she just defeated top-ten player Ons Jabeur, 6-0, 6-2.
But, things didn’t look good in the third set when Andreeva fell behind 5-1, and her odds of winning on sportsbooks were around +1000. Then, she played some of the greatest tennis I’ve ever seen in my many years of watching, and it came after the match announcer, whose name I do not know and cannot find because it was the international feed and not the ESPN feed with analysts like the McEnroe brothers said this.
Andreeva down 5-1 in third. Commentator “she really needs to work on mental side of her game.. she’s too hard on herself when she’s losing”
30 minutes later 7-6 Andreeva wins.
Maybe the reason she turned the match round is because of her mental strength. Maybe she turned the…— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) January 19, 2024
A lot of times, players can get tight trying to close out a match and make a lot of errors. American Danielle Collins did this when she blew a huge lead to world-number-one Iga Swiatek in the second round when she was up two breaks of serve in the third set.
That is not what happened in this match. Parry did not give the match away at all. Instead, Mirra Andreeva played some of the best, most composed, and most inspired tennis anyone will see.
Start at 3:30 on this video to see some of the unreal tennis she played.
At 16, I was stressing about taking the SAT. Mirra Andreeva is 16 and has the third-best odds to win the Australian Open. Coco Gauff was an awesome player at 16, going deep into slams. Gauff is already one of the world’s best players (world #3), and has already won a Grand Slam tournament at last year’s US Open. I’m telling you, Mirra Andreeva is significantly better at 16 than Coco was, and I’m a Coco fan.
It’s hard to project how a career of someone so young is going to go. But, to me, she looks like someone who is going to absolutely dominate women’s tennis for the next decade-plus. She has insane court coverage, is confident in her ground strokes, a tennis IQ that is already elite on tour, and will only get stronger physically to get more pop on her ground strokes. Plus, she’s already putting commentators in their place.
If you like tennis even a little bit, find a way to stay up and watch her play this weekend in the 4th round against an opponent that, as of 3AM ET on Friday, has not been determined.