Andreeva hunting Gauff’s tally and AO 2025 glory

Coco Gauff is only 20. Iga Swiatek is just 23. They have six Grand Slam titles between them already. Qinwen Zheng, the reigning Olympic champion, turned 22 last October. Five of the WTA’s top 10 are aged 25 or under, and only one is 30 or over.

The future of women’s tennis is in good hands, and there might just be another superstar in the making who is ready to prove age is just a number.

That is world No.14 Mirra Andreeva. A 17-year-old who stands alone as the only teenager in the in the WTA’s top 100.

And after starting with a convincing win over Marie Bouzkova, Andreeva has records in her sights at Australian Open 2025.

A star is born

First, let’s recap the teenager's remarkable rise.

She reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2023 and replicated that run at AO 2024.

She made history by beating sixth seed Ons Jabeur 6-0 6-2 in the second round; aged 16 years and 263 days, she became the youngest player in the Open era to deal a first-set bagel to a top-10 seed at a major. 

She was the second-youngest player, after a 15-year-old Gauff in 2020, to reach the fourth round of the women’s singles at the AO.

Her impressive campaigns also made her just the fourth player across the past 30 years to reach the fourth round of the women’s singles at both Wimbledon and the AO before turning 17, after Martina Hingis, Tatiana Golovin and Gauff.

To Paris she went. Emina Bektas, two-time AO champion Victoria Azarenka, Peyton Stearns and Varvara Gracheva fell by the wayside before second seed Aryna Sabalenka also failed to stop Andreeva, who became the youngest player to reach the Roland Garros semifinals since Hingis in 1997.

Jasmine Paolini had too much for her in the last four, but Andreeva had laid down a marker. She claimed her maiden Tour-level title at the Iasi Open in July, then won Olympic silver in the doubles alongside fellow youngster Diana Shnaider, back on the clay courts of Roland Garros.

Though she could not get going at Wimbledon or the US Open, she rounded off 2024 with deep runs in Beijing and Ningbo, reaching the final of the latter tournament but losing to compatriot Daria Kasatkina. 

Andreeva finished the year with 34 main-draw wins on the Tour – the most of any teenager, eight clear of next best, Linda Noskova (26).

Going supernova?

Andreeva has maintained that momentum heading into 2025.

Sabalenka might have got her own back with a straight-sets triumph in the Brisbane International semifinals, but there were few signs of that loss shaking Andreeva when she took to the court at John Cain Arena for her AO 2025 bow on Sunday.

Bouzkova was no match as Andreeva – the youngest player ranked in the top 20 by the WTA since Nicole Vaidisova in October 2006 – shrugged off the odd wobble, as well as a storm causing a delay, to cast aside a player nine years her senior 6-3 6-3 in a little over 90 minutes.

Sunday’s victory means Andreeva has now won 16 of her 23 major matches. In the 21st century, only two players can boast a better Grand Slam win ratio while 18 or younger than Andreeva’s 69.6% – Vaidisova (72.2% - 26/36) and Maria Sharapova
(75% - 24/32).

Meanwhile, only three female players since the start of 2000 can boast more wins before turning 18 – Vaidisova (26), Sharapova (24) and Gauff (18).

Gauff’s win tally, then, is firmly in Andreeva’s sights at AO 2025.

Andreeva’s first-round triumph also took her to four match victories at the AO, which equalled Gauff’s number of wins prior to turning 18.

Victory in her second-round tie, against Moyuka Uchijima, would take Andreeva ahead of Gauff, and behind only Sharapova (seven) and Vaidisova (10) for AO wins when aged under 18.

Showing maturity well beyond her years, Andreeva, who has gone from strength to strength under the tutelage of 1994 Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez – is leaving records, and opponents, in her wake. 

AO 2025 could just be her crowning moment.