Teen sensation and Andy Murray fan Mirra Andreeva to crack 100 in rankings

French Open
Mirra Andreeva in action

Mirra Andreeva continued her fairytale run at Roland Garros on Thursday as she reached the third round in Paris on her Grand Slam main draw debut.

Andreeva, who turned 16 on April 29, was just outside the top 300 in the WTA Rankings just over two months ago, but she is now set to surge to a career-high of No 97 following yet another confident display at the French Open.

After coming through qualifying, the teenager dropped only three games as she defeated Alison Riske-Amritraj in the first round and she followed it up with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over wildcard Diane Parry on Thursday.

At the beginning of the year Andreeva was playing in the Australian Open Juniors and she certainly didn’t expect to be in the main draw in Paris this week.

“When I played Australian Open juniors, I thought I’d probably play Roland Garros juniors. But I managed to qualify here. Now I will play third round so I’m really excited,” she said.

Following her win over American Riske-Amritraj, Andreeva joked that former world No 1 Andy Murray was her lucky charm as he wished her good luck after they exchanged texts following his title win at an ATP Challenger Tour event in May.

“I said, ‘Congratulations’. He actually answered me, so I was really happy about it. He said, ‘Thank you and good luck in Roland Garros’. Maybe that’s why I’m playing that good now,” she said.

Maybe she will get another message from Murray after her latest win.

Andreeva could be involved in an all-teenage clash in the third round as she will face the winner of the Coco Gauff and Julia Grabher match. American Gauff is only 18, but the favourite for the clash against Grabher.

“For sure, It will be a great match,” she said. “She’s an experienced player already even though she’s young also. She’s 18, I think. I will do my best & I’m sure she’ll do her best also. So we will see who’ll do it better.”

Mirra Andreeva joins elite list

The 16-year-old Andreeva is only the seventh player under the age of 17 to reach the third round of the women’s singles at Roland Garros since 1993.

Iva Majoli (1993, 1994), Martina Hingis (1995, 1996, 1997), Anna Kournikova (1997, 1998), Serena Williams (1998), Sesil Karatantcheva (2005), Michelle Larchar de Brito (2009) are the other sixth to have achieved the feat in the last 20 years.

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Mirra Andreeva

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