17-year-old Mirra Andreeva will enter the world’s top 10 for the first time in her career, after winning the WTA 1000 title in Dubai.
Andreeva defeated Dane Clara Tauson 7-6(1), 6-1 in a 106-minute final to clinch the second title of her young career. She had previously won the lasi Open in mid-2024.
The Russian is the youngest-ever woman to lift a WTA 1000 trophy.
The 990 additional points gained this week means that Andreeva will rise from world No 14 to the world No 9 spot – the youngest woman to reach the elusive top 10 club since 2007.
“I set a goal for myself to be top 10 by the end of the year, and it’s just February and I have already made it, so this is something incredible for me, and I’m just super happy with the way I was playing today,” said the Russian during her post-match interview.
“I was hella nervous, I think you could see during the match, all those double-fault mistakes, I’m just really happy that I could manage and deal with the pressure, and now it just feels amazing.
“Honestly, it was hard, because all those thoughts were coming into my mind. In the first set, I feel a bit lucky. This is something I dreamt of and now my dream came true. I’m speechless right now.”
Andreeva’s goal to be in the top 10 may have come considerably earlier than she thought, but a future goal of the top five may be on the horizon for the newly-crowned Dubai champion.
“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 stated.
“I think it’s going to be hard to enter 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.”
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Speaking about the final itself, the victor explained: “When I managed to win the first set, I felt like, ‘Well, OK, this is I think one of the first times when I actually lead in the score’, that gave me a bit of confidence.”
“I missed some shots that I usually don’t miss. [But] if something doesn’t go your way, OK, fine, you forget about it, play one point at a time.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of LeBron James interviews. What he said is it’s easy to be confident and to play good when everything goes your way. What makes you a champion is when you’re giving your best when you don’t feel great.
“That’s what I tried to do today.”
Earlier in the week, Andreeva had beaten three Grand Slam champions – former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the second round, Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals, and Elena Rybakina in the last four.
The soon-to-be world No 9 needed only eleven participations in main-draw events before she got her hands on the trophy, the fewest since Paula Badosa at Indian Wells in 2021 – with the Spaniard needing just ten.
Mirra Andreeva will next participate at the BNP Paribas Open, in Indian Wells, with main-draw matches taking place from March 6 – March 14.
