AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 17, 2024

Mirra Andreeva

Press Conference

M. ANDREEVA/O. Jabeur

6-0, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Mirra, well done today. A big win for you. How are you feeling generally?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Of course I'm happy I played with Ons. It was one of my dreams to play against her, because I really like the way she plays.

As I said before, I'm inspired by her. So it means a lot, today it meant a lot, this match that I won.

I'm excited, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. What is it that inspires you about Ons?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I don't know. Just the way she's on the court and off the court. She's so nice.

Now, after the match, she came to me, she wished me luck. I just know that she is who she is and she never change. That's what I like about her.

Q. Is that the best match you've ever played in terms of your level, considering the level of the opponent? And also, last year you complained to us about chemistry, and I was curious if you were still doing your schoolwork and what subjects you were taking and what was the subject you didn't like now anymore.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: So the first question, probably it was the best match. The first set, as I said, I didn't expect that I would play this good. Second set was also not bad. So, yes, for me it was an amazing match. I'm super happy with the level that I showed today on the court.

About school, I still don't like chemistry. I still have to do a lot of school. It actually started two days ago, so I have to do it, so yeah.

Q. That's your second match on Rod Laver. Obviously you lost the girls final a year ago. How much was losing that final motivation for the whole of your success last year?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Honestly, after I lost the final, I was just super upset. I didn't think about anything else. For maybe a week I was just replaying the match in my head, and I was thinking, This, I should have changed this, should have changed that, I should have changed this.

Honestly, after that, after all my complaints to myself, I forgot about this match. I decided to move on. It's not the most painful loss of my life. I will have, I'm sure, a lot of offensive matches where I may be late in the score and then I lose. Maybe. I hope this will not happen, but I think it will because it's tennis.

After that, I just moved on. Today when I saw that I play on Rod Laver, I said that this time I have to take my chance and I have to win on the big court for the first time, and so I did.

Q. Wondering how you mentally prepared to face your idol? Did you feel extra nerves? Did it feel surreal? Tell us how you felt.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yes, I was really nervous before the match, but I saw that she was nervous too. I don't know. It kind of helped me, because I know I'm not the only one who is nervous before the match.

I just decided to just enjoy, because it's Rod Laver Arena, I'm playing against the person that I like. I decided just to play, and I think I played okay (smiling).

Q. I noticed, obviously you're restricted by the amount of tournaments you can play with your age. I notice you played a lot of exhibitions at the end of last year. Wondering how it helped you, and also just being around top players in Dubai, how those things helped you when you haven't been able to play as much as other players.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, yeah, that's the rules, but you cannot go against the rules. Last year we decided to add more exhibition tournaments, to play more matches. They invited me to play in World Tennis League.

At first I didn't want to go, because I thought that nobody will like to have me in a team because I'm young, I'm not experienced. After the first day that I lost my singles match and we lost the doubles, I thought, well, why did they invite me? I was so sad, but then I said to myself, If they invited me, then maybe I play not too bad and they wanted to see my level on the court.

I decided to just let it go, and on the second day, we won doubles, I think, and mixed doubles we lost. I'm not sure -- yeah, we lost the mixed doubles with Andrey and we won the doubles with Sofia, and so after that I was super pumped to play another match on the next day.

The atmosphere in our team was amazing, so I really liked it and I hope next year I will have a chance to come back.

Q. Ons is usually the queen of dropshots, but you played a lot of good dropshots today. Did that feel extra special because you were playing her?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yes, I was preparing for this match, and I knew that she was going to do a lot of slices and dropshots, so since yesterday I was working on it.

The dropshots, I'm also not very bad at dropshots, so I decided at first to not to do a lot of dropshots, because I think that she's better in all these games, so I just decided to try to beat her on the baseline.

After, I don't know, it was just the momentum when I decided to do a lot, couple of dropshots, and I think she's still better than me in this, but I will improve (smiling).

Q. I'm wondering if the Paris Olympics is something that you're interested in, and if you'd go if you were able.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Maybe. I don't know if I go, but if I have a chance to go, then of course I'm super excited to play and to participate. It's also one more tournament that it's a dream to play.

We will see. But for now, I don't know.

Q. What do you do, what do you tell yourself to not get ahead of yourself and think about rankings, wins, tournaments, what you could potentially do, given what you have already done at 16?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I just try to not to think about that. I just -- I don't think that I achieve something incredible, so I have time still to do that. Sometimes when I'm lying in bed, I can overthink a little bit, but the next morning I'm totally fine.

I mean, I'm 16. Why do I have to think about the rankings? I'm going a bit higher, and so my goal is to go higher and higher maybe for a little bit but still higher.

So I don't know. I just try not to think about that and just to think about tennis and that's it.