Mirra Andreeva’s Wimbledon vision remained in perfect focus after she became the third youngest qualifier ever to reach the third round. But the 16-year-old is spending as little time as possible at the All England Lawn Tennis Club between rounds – because she is terrified of bumping into Andy Murray.
The 16-year-old blitzed Heather Watson’s first-round conqueror Barbora Krejcikova 6-3 in the third set and was 4-0 up in the second when the no. 10 seed finally gave in to an injury to her left foot. It was her fifth win out of five on grass having come through at Roehampton – but she hit the tennis radar earlier in the year when she reached the fourth round in Madrid.
There she was wowed by the experience of actually meeting her tennis heroes – claiming Murray looked “beautiful in real life”. The former world no. 1 joked that Andreeva needed to have her “eyes fixed” – and now the Russian is too nervous to risk actually having to talk to him.
“I met Andy Murray here,” Andreeva said. “But I’m too shy to talk to him. When I see him, I try to leave the facility super quick just to not to talk to him because I’m super shy!”
Only Kim Clijsters in 1999 and Coco Gauff four years ago have got this far into the tournament at a younger age since the open era started in 1968. However, having settled into Wimbledon this week, nothing at the Championships seems so daunting anymore – aside from Murray, of course.
“It’s like, wow, super beautiful here!” she said. “It’s super traditional – the white clothes, the grass, the strawberries, of course. I would say that before I would be definitely scared to play on the Centre Court. But now I want to play on the court with tribunes – maybe the supervisors will see this press conference!
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