Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva has outlined her desire to win as many Grand Slam titles as the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic over the course of her professional tennis career. Andreeva recently booked her place in the third round of the French Open and will be hoping to stay in the tournament for as long as possible as she looks to underline her sky-high potential in Paris over the course of this fortnight.
The 16-year-old needed to make it through qualifying to reach the main draw at Roland Garros and has lost just six games in her first two rounds, with her latest victory coming over Diane Parry in straight sets on Thursday. Andreeva has since declared that she will be looking to surpass the number of Grand Slam titles won by Federer, Nadal and Djokovic if she manages to hit the heights that she is expecting over the coming years.
“The dream: I know that Djokovic, he did 22 Grand Slams, so I want to go until 25 if it will be possible,” she told reporters before insisting that she will not be allowing herself to get carried away in chasing her future goals without a senior Grand Slam title to her name.
“For now my goal is to win match by match, to win the next match,” she added. “Then if I win this match, it’s to win the next match after that. As my coach says, to not be like a diva, to stay humble all the time.
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“I don’t think that I have a lot of success now. I didn’t win any tournaments, I just play. It’s the third round of Roland Garros. I will play.”
Andreeva will face Coco Gauff in the next round of the French Open on Saturday in an intriguing contest, which will put the latter in the rare position of going into the match as the vastly more experienced player. The pair already know about each other’s strengths and weaknesses after practicing together in recent weeks and it remains to be see if Andreeva will be able to pull off a major upset by downing her American opponent in order to reach the fourth round.
Gauff has already insisted that she will not be taking the match lightly in spite of Andreeva’s young age and lack of senior experience, saying after her victory over Julia Grabher: “I’ve watched her the past couple of weeks. She’s obviously done well and the practice with her, it was a good practice.
“I think she’s a great player. Obviously she’s young, but I don’t see age as a factor. You have to play her as you would play any other person that’s grown and strong. Obviously she’s proved her position here, and I’m going to try to do my best against her.”
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