Seventeen-year-old sensation Mirra Andreeva made history on Saturday night at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, beating Denmark’s Clara Tauson in straight sets 7-6(1), 6-1 to become the youngest player to win a WTA 1000 title since the format’s inception in 2009.
Dubai’s women’s tournament – celebrating its 25-year anniversary this week – featured two first-time finalists for a second successive year and, despite boasting one of the strongest fields outside the Grand Slams with 36 of the world’s Top 40, finished with two players on Centre Court who had started the tournament outside the top 10.
That will change on Monday with Andreeva set to now become the first teen since 2007 to place among the world’s top-10 players when the latest PIF WTA World Rankings are released.
Dream comes true
In the post-match press conference inside Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, sat next to her glimmering trophy, Andreeva said she had long envisioned the moment. “I’ve been dreaming of having a press conference with a trophy by my side, so finally it happened,” she said. And, safe in the knowledge the prize money too was on its way to her father – for at 17, she said, she is too young to have her own bank account – Andreeva declared she has “everything I ever wanted.”
“All questions to my dad,” Andreeva replied smiling, when asked how she might spend the US$597,000 winner’s prize. “It all goes on his credit card because I don’t have my own yet. I cannot have my own bank account because I’m not 18. I’m hoping that he will leave me some to spend somewhere, to buy chips and Coke… Honestly, I don’t even know what I want. I feel like I have everything I ever wanted: I won the tournament, I’ve already reached my goal that I’d set for myself by the end of the year, my family is travelling with me, I have a great team… I don’t know what else I need. I feel happy and I feel this is all I need.”
After defeating three Grand Slam champions on her route to the final, a nervy Andreeva dropped her first service following two consecutive double-faults to fall 2-0 behind. Yet Tauson, who was also playing in her first WTA 1000 final, failed to capitalise and saw her own service game broken. It proved the start of a topsy-turvy 61-minute opening set in which both players exchanged breaks before the younger of the two claimed first blood with a near-perfect tiebreak performance.
The Dane, whose semi-final battle with Karolina Muchova the previous evening had lasted close to three hours, said tiredness had certainly played its part in the defeat, conceding even if she had won the first set, it would likely have been merely a consolation.
“I mean, I can’t tell you where it doesn’t hurt right now,” Tauson said. “My body was really, really tired after the past couple days. I’ve never played on this high a level six or seven days in a row. It was really tough for me to even get out there. I tried to give it my all, but my tank was pretty empty. Even if I had won the first set, I’m not sure I would have played very good tennis in the second. I was pretty gassed every single point we played. But I really tried to put on the best show I could. I knew it was going to be really tough and the little energy I had, I left out there today, so I can’t be too mad.”
Andreeva upped the ante in the second set and after a tiring Tauson held her opening serve, the 17-year-old twisted the knife breaking twice for a 5-1 advantage and serving out the win at the first time of asking. It was the third consecutive match in which Andreeva finished by winning five games straight. The WTA 1000 victory will see the World No12 enter the top 10, a goal she had previously set for the year. It is February.
Asked whether she will adapt her goals for the year, she replied: “Well, I haven’t thought about it until right now… The higher your ranking is, the slower and longer it’s going to take for you to be even higher because the difference in points is very small. If I win another tournament, I’m going to be top 8; If I win another tournament, I can still be top 8 and just stay there, so I think it’s going to be hard to enter top 5. But this is the exact goal that I’m going to set for myself: To be top 5 by the end of the year. I’m curious if I will be able to achieve it.”
Now complete, the 25th edition of the annual WTA 1000 will be followed by the 33rd staging of Dubai’s ATP Tour 500 tournament, which takes place from February 24 to March 1. Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free and held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
tanvir@dubainewsweek.com
