Twenty minutes into the first grand slam final of her young career, it looked as if Mirra Andreeva’s head was already in danger of exiting Court Philippe-Chatrier. Between the weight of the occasion, the tough windy conditions and a resourceful opponent seemingly built to cause her maximum anguish, the 19-year-old looked hindered by tension.
Her reaction to the pressure underlined the work the Russian has put into addressing her emotional vulnerabilities. Andreeva maintained her composure, coolly problem-solving and then flourishing after a tense start as she ended the qualifier Maja Chwalinska’s historic run with a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Ever since Andreeva arrived on tour as a 15-year-old, already beating some of the best players in the world, it seemed to be a matter of time before she began to compete for major titles. The question was how long it would take.
Not too long, it turns out. Andreeva is the youngest French Open champion since Monica Seles won her third consecutive title in 1992 and the third-youngest grand slam champion of the 21st century, behind Maria Sharapova and Emma Raducanu. “I’ve had dreams, I’ve had a lot of thoughts on how it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, where,” said Andreeva. “I would say that the feeling in real life is so much better, obviously, than in your dreams. It just feels looking at this trophy and realising that this is actually true, and I can call myself a grand slam champion, I guess.”
After a backhand winner sealed the title, Andreeva fell to the ground in celebration before entering her player box to embrace her family and team. During her speech, Andreeva heaped praise upon her coach, Conchita Martínez, the runner-up here in 2000 to Mary Pierce, who presented Andreeva with the trophy.
The Russian also thanked her sports psychologist, Alexis Castorri, for helping her to approach tennis in the right way. “My psychologist says that you can always choose how you’re going to be on the court, how you’re going to play and who you’re going to be as a person as well,” she said. “So I just decided to choose to be a fighter.”
She also drew inspiration from Roger Federer. “I watched a lot of Roger’s matches here. No one is going to have the same aura but I really want to try to impersonate the way he behaves a little bit on the court because I love watching him on the court when he used to play. Maybe that helped me a little bit because I wanted to look good on the court, not be frustrated or be not happy with how I play.”
Most players would dream of facing an opponent ranked No 114 in a final but this was still potentially a hazardous encounter. Against Chwalinska, the second qualifier in history to reach a slam final after Raducanu, Andreeva began the match conscious of the fact that she was the heavy favourite. It was her first slam final but anything less than victory would be catastrophic.
The mental challenge of facing Chwalinska was immediately clear. From the beginning, the Pole threw everything at Andreeva in her attempts to disrupt and unsettle her younger opponent: loopy topspin, low slices, drop shots, angles and occasional injections of pace on her lefty forehand. Chwalinska’s excellent defence made it extremely difficult to hit through her.
The slow and extremely windy conditions made things more challenging for Andreeva and many of her bad habits resurfaced early on. She became passive and reactive, struggling to time her forehand. On numerous occasions in the first five games, too scared of making unforced errors, Andreeva resorted to moonballs.
Compared with the past two grand slam finals, which included some of the finest shotmaking talent to emerge this century in Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and Amanda Anisimova, the tennis ball seemed to be moving at half speed on both sides of the net.
Down 2-3 after following up two double faults with an error-strewn return game, Andreeva steadied herself by finding first serves and securing her first hold of the match. This provided her with the confidence to force herself inside the baseline in the exchanges, taking the ball early off both wings, carefully redirecting it and controlling every point. Once she began to play on her own terms, the 106 ranking places between them were clear. From 2-3 in set one, Andreeva rolled through nine consecutive games before confidently closing out the match.
