Mirra Andreeva showed up to tennis in the middle of last season, like the new kid at school whose mother or father has just been transferred into the local branch office.
One day, no one had ever heard of her, the next, she’s all anyone is talking about. This is how it is for Andreeva, who, at 16 years old and a week into the online version of her junior year in high school and already complaining about the homework, is taking over this Australian Open. She is pulling off another miracle every other day, then talking about it with equal parts sophistication, self-deprecation, humor and sarcasm in her third language (Russian and French are one and two) better than many people can in their first.
The other day, Andreeva blitzed Ons Jabeur, the three-time Grand Slam finalist and her female tennis idol, playing nearly flawless tennis on her way to a 6-0, 6-2 win in Rod Laver Arena, the same court where she lost the junior final here last year.
On Friday, Andreeva pulled off a different sort of miracle. She bounced back from losing the first set to Diane Parry 6-1 to draw even, then somehow climbed out of a 5-1 hole in the third set, saved two match points, surged ahead 6-5, then failed to serve out the match but quickly recovered to blow Parry out in the deciding-set…
