18-year-old Mirra Andreeva became the youngest-ever woman to reach a WTA 1000 final after beating former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
The No 12 seed was victorious 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 against the Kazakh, and will face Clara Tauson or Karolina Muchova in the Dubai final.
Andreeva’s win made history, with the superstar now the youngest woman to reach a WTA 1000 final since its inception back in 2009.
Additionally, the Russian is the first woman to beat three Grand Slam champions at the same event since Maria Sharapova did so in 2004 at the WTA Finals. She had already claimed the record for the youngest woman to beat multiple such champions during a WTA 1000 event after her prior match.
Dubai finalist Andreeva defeated former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the second round, before dominating five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals, prior to her win over the 2022 Wimbledon champion in the last four.
Maria Sharapova toppled Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Myskina, and Serena Williams en route to the 2004 year-end championships in Los Angeles.
“Honestly it’s crazy because, at first, I was not very positive before coming to Dubai,” said Andreeva, after the win over Rybakina,
“I was like, okay, well, I’m just going to play.
“Last time we played it was a really tough match… She went for her shots and killed me in the end. This time I knew she’d hit hard. I tried to fight for every point and kept believing.
“I just tried to accept when things didn’t go my way. I fought for every point and kept believing and, in the end, it went my way.”
The WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai will be Andreeva’s second tour-level final, with the first occurring at the lasi Open last year – where she defeated Elina Avanesyan in the championship match.
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Prior to the match, Rybakina had made it clear that Andreeva would be a tough test: “She has nothing to lose. I think she was playing very well in the tournament. She’s very dangerous.
“She’s physically very good, very quick. I saw today, a couple of games. She was serving really well. If she plays like that, for sure it’s not easy.”
Whilst the Russian is the youngest-ever woman to make a WTA 1000 final, two other teenagers have reached the same stage.
In 2021, Iga Swiatek defeated Karolina Pliskova in the final of the Rome Masters – at the age of 19.
Two years later, Coco Gauff lifted the trophy at the Cincinnati Open when she was victorious against Karolina Muchova – also at the age of 19.
Her win over Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals had already handed the Russian multiple impressive records.
At 17 years and 297 days, Andreeva became the youngest woman to reach the last four of the event and the youngest-ever player to defeat the Pole.
The No 12 seed, after her victory over Swiatek, was also the youngest WTA player to earn five wins against top 10-ranked opponents since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007 at the age of 17 years and 273 days.
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