The 16-year-old Russian tennis player Mirra Andreeva continues her brilliant performance at the Australian Open 2024. The Russian talent will play in the second week of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, after making a sensational comeback today to eliminate Diane Parry (France) by 2-1 (1:6, 6:1, 7:6). The talented teenager was 1:5 down in the third set and saved a match point to reach the ultimate success after a tiebreak in which she had a serious advantage early on.
Mirra Andreeva and 21-year-old Diane Parry played for the second time in an official match. Last year, the Russian beat the French at Roland Garros by 2-0 (6:1, 6:2). Because of this result, and because of Mirra Andreeva’s surprisingly convincing victory over Ons Jabeur by 2-0 (6:0, 6:2) in the previous round, many might have expected another convincing victory for the young superstar. However, there was nothing like that today. After the two exchanged a quick set each, Diane Parry looked to be in complete control of the game in the decisive third. Not only did she serve for the win twice, but she also had a match point on Mirra Andreeva’s serve at 5:2 and 30:40. However, the Russian refused to give up, braced herself and won the next five games with a brilliant game. However, she, in turn, was unable to close the match on her own serve, and that’s how it came to the tiebreak. In it, Mirra Andreeva dominated almost from the first ball and congratulated herself with the ultimate success after 2 hours and 23 minutes of play.
Thus, the winner of the “Rookie of the Year” award for the 2023 season qualified for her second round of 16 in the Grand Slam tournaments after that of Wimbledon 2023. In the last 30 years, only three tennis players before her have reached the fourth round in Melbourne and London before to turn 17 – Martina Hingis, Tatiana Golovin and Cori Coco Gauff.
In a bid to reach her first major quarterfinal, Mirra Andreeva will face the 9th-seeded and 2021 Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic), who she beat twice last season. The Czech woman eliminated the Australian qualifier Storm Hunter today after a turn with 2-1 (4:6, 7:5, 6:3).
Storm Hunter took the first set by making three breaks in it, and in the second set missed a total of four break points. Barbora Krejcikova somehow managed to avoid losing her serve and managed to break in the 12th game of the second set in turn to level the scores. In the decisive third set, the Czech woman made an early breakthrough, led the game 3:0 and kept her lead until the end.
Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine) also achieved a comeback, who will play for the second time in the fourth round of the tournament after 2-1 (2:6, 6:4, 6:4) against Elina Avanesyan (Russia).
In the other late match of the women’s program, 20-year-old Russian Maria Timofeeva defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil) by 2-0 (7:6, 6:3). In the first set, Maria Timofeeva overcame a 0:3 game deficit and saved a set point in the tiebreak, but in the second set she took a 5:1 game lead and had no difficulty closing the match.
Meanwhile, Amanda Anisimova (USA) defeated Paula Badosa (Spain) by 2-0 (7:5, 6:4), while Magdalena Frech (Poland) won her third round match versus Anastasia Zakharova (Russia) by 2-1 (4:6, 7:5, 6:4)
The second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) eliminated Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) after 2-0 (6:0, 6:0), while the 4th-seeded Cori Coco Gauff (USA) defeated her compatriot Alycia Parks by 2-0 (6:0, 6:2).
