Mirra Andreeva likened to Roger Federer as Serena Williams’ ex-coach makes ‘psycho’ comment
Six-time Grand Slam doubles champion Rennae Stubbs has compared Mirra Andreeva to both Roger Federer and Madison Keys and warned that “everyone should be afraid” of the young star.
Andreeva, who is 17, became the youngest-ever player to win a WTA 1000 tournament with her triumph at the Dubai Championships last week.
The Russian defeated Clara Tauson 7-6(1), 6-1 in the championship match to secure her second career title.
Andreeva’s victory saw her become the youngest woman to reach the top 10 of the WTA Rankings since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007.
Speaking on the The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, Stubbs argued Andreeva’s mental improvement was the key to her big breakthrough in Dubai.
“Mirra Andreeva, to me, is similar [to Madison Keys] in a lot of ways because she was such a mental case on the court at times and I was like, ‘Is this kid ever going to reel this in?’ And now she looks like a completely different player,” the Australian said.
“I mean, it’s the same as Roger Federer when he was a junior. He was a psycho. And then he gets to play pro and he realised really quickly, ‘Oh, that doesn’t work. This works’.
“So that’s why everyone should be afraid of Mirra, and that’s why everyone should be afraid of Madison, because mentally, they are both switched on to what works now and what is successful.”
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Andreeva was beaten by world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in her first two tournaments of 2025 in Brisbane and at the Australian Open.
Stubbs suggested those defeats will have helped Andreeva as she highlighted the ways in which she expects the world No 9 to develop.
“Look, she’s been sort of knocking on the door over the last couple of months, she’s been taken out by Sabalenka a couple of times in Australia,” the former doubles world No 1 added.
“You could sort of see that she — it was kind of like a heavyweight playing against a middleweight in the boxing ring. You just knew that she didn’t quite have the power, didn’t quite have the strength to hit through someone like a Sabalenka.
“You’ve gotta have those matches to know also where you’re at and what you’re lacking. And it’s pretty obvious at her age, the physicality part will come. She has decent height, she’s gonna get stronger.
“I don’t know how much bigger and stronger she’ll get, but there’s no doubt that her weight of shot is gonna get better and her depth of shot is really good.
“That’s what impresses me about her as well, her ball gets deep into the court, it gets close to the baseline. Her balls that she hits down the line are unreal, her backhand down the line is so good.”
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