“Now when you enter Top 10 and the higher your ranking is, the slower and longer it’s going to take for you to be even higher because the difference in the points is very, very short, very small,” Andreeva said, according to the WTA website.
“I think it’s going to be hard to enter the top 5. This is the exact goal that I’m going to set for myself, to be Top 5 by the end of the year. I’m very curious if I will be able to achieve it.”
Andreeva, at 17, and soon to be the youngest player inside the WTA’s top 10 since 2007 (that will happen on Monday, officially), is already ahead of the game in many ways. She’s advanced for her age in terms of power, stamina and tennis IQ. She’s also growing psychologically.
She talked about the importance of playing well despite mid-match turmoil after raising the trophy in Dubai.
“It’s easy to be confident and it’s easy to play good when everything goes your way,” she told reporters. “When you feel like the ball is flying, when you feel like you are hitting a lot of winners and everything is going your way, but I would say for me the hardest part is to still be positive and to force yourself to be 100 percent mentally when something doesn’t go your way.
Andreeva says there is no longer any room for negativity in her game.
“For me today that was exactly what happened because I didn’t feel great on court, I missed some shot that I usually don’t miss. I just told myself that you can either let that negativity come into your head and kill you or you can choose to be 100 percent mentally and fight for every point. If something doesn’t go your way, well ok fine, you forget about it and you play one point at a time.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of LeBron James’ interviews, and what he said was it’s easy to be confident and to play well when everything goes your way but what makes you a champion is when you are giving your best when you don’t feel great – that’s what I tried to do today.”
