Two Minutes with Mirra Andreeva, tennis’ new teen queen

DUBAI—First we could feel the floor rumbling. Then came the chants.

“MI-RRA! MI-RRA!” screamed the hundreds of fans lined up outside the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, eager for face time with Mirra Andreeva, at once a WTA 1000 champion and an overwhelmed 17-year-old.

“Oh my god!” she exclaims, putting her hands to her face.

The teenager had been all poise during the 106 minutes she took to beat Clara Tauson, win the biggest title of her career in Dubai, and clinch her Top 10 debut. She had been equally impressive in her media rounds, mixing wise-cracks over champagne with wisdom about the work still ahead of her—namely the two WTA 1000s to come next month in Indian Wells and Miami.

“I’m just going to work the same way and work hard,” she tells me as we walked through the tunnel and towards the chaos outside. “Maybe I’m going to celebrate for one or two days. I’m going to let myself relax a little bit, but then I have to get back to work.

“You know, it’s great to win a tournament but it’s also not great because you feel more pressure and you’re thinking how you won a tournament last week but you have to start playing from the first round of the tournament happening the next week. But this is the beauty of tennis: every week is a new chance to win.”

Andreeva speaks like it’s her 12th year on tour, not her second. Sometimes one must listen closely to remember she’s still two months away from her 18th birthday, like when she cites a Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal final—you know, the one from 2017—as a formative match from her childhood.

Other times it’s right on the surface, like when the soon-to-be World No.9 talks enthusiastically about making her Miami Open debut next month.

This is the beauty of tennis: every week is a new chance to win. Mirra Andreeva

“I had to withdraw last year,” she reminds me, “so I’m super excited and super pumped to come there for the first time and play on those courts.

“Indian Wells, of course, has the altitude, and so the ball bounces and flies. From what I’ve seen of Miami on TV, it’s a bit faster, so we’re going to see which one I prefer.”

Hearing the fans grow louder, I knew what celebration sounded like. Coke Zero aside, what will celebration look like for athlete who says she has everything?

“Celebration, for me,” she pauses to take in another roar from outside, “will look like spending a lot of time with my family.”

Andreeva barely has time to repeat the admittedly heartwarming sentiment when a security guard cuts our interview at two minutes and nudges her toward the door. Gliding away, she takes the five steps onto the grass and officially kicks off the first celebration of what is shaping up to be a breakthrough season.