Mirra Andreeva has arrived. The 17-year-old, who has seemingly been around for years already, had only one title in her short career entering the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, and that was a 250 event. The Russian had not yet been able to come close to breaking through at a bigger event. That was until she played Clara Tauson in Dubai when Andreeva won the WTA 1000 tournament.
To be sure, Tauson has had a good run to begin the year. She won the ASB Classic and reached the semifinals of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz. She was certainly no pushover for Andreeva as Tauson has been playing some of the best tennis on the WTA tour.
But the week belonged to Andreeva. She throttled WTA No. 2 Iga Swiatek 6-3 6-3 in the quarterfinals. Andreeva overcame an in-form Elena Rybakina in the semifinals. Last year, the Russian appeared to struggle with players who had immense power. That time has seemingly passed, though. Tauson had power, but Andreeva just wore her down.
Mirra Andreeva defeats Clara Tauson to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
That was the key for the entire Dubai Tennis Championships for the Russian. She kept forcing players to not hit just one great shot per rally, but several. Her opponents simply could not keep up.
After a first set against Tauson, where each player broke the other several times, Andreeva dominated the tie-break as she raced out to a 6-love lead. Once she took the set, the rest of the match appeared to be a formality. Tauson was wiped and tired while the young Russian appeared to be having no conditioning issues. She took the second set 6-2.
Andreeva will now move into the top 10 on the WTA tour for the first time. She will be ranked No. 9 when the new rankings come out on Monday. This is the highest of her career, though one might safely assume she will keep working her way up the rankings.
If she masters her defense even further, and she already possesses a wicked backhand, she should make deep runs at Grand Slams even this year. Based on her play in Dubai, there is no reason to doubt her.