ROLAND GARROS

June 5, 2024

Mirra Andreeva

Press Conference

M. ANDREEVA/A. Sabalenka

6-7, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Mirra, congratulations. Into the semifinals, first semifinals at a Grand Slam for you. Talk us through the match. How does it feel to be at this stage now?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Thank you. It feels amazing. It was a thriller match, and we both played good. I'm really happy that I managed to win the match and go to my first semifinals.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Can you tell me about the ladybug?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah, in the last game on her serve, I think the score was 30-15 for her, and I saw a ladybug on the floor, on the clay. I was, like, well, I have to save it. I picked it up. Yeah, after I just tried not to think about that, but I was, like, hmm, this could be a sign (smiling).

I honestly tried not to think about that. I tried to stay in the game, stay focused, and not to wait for her mistakes, to try to finish everything by myself.

But maybe this was a little sign (smiling) as I won the game and the match, so that was a nice moment for me.

Q. A very general question. If you had to step back and describe your greatest strength as a player, what would that be?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I think that I would say that I always play the way I want to play. We have a plan with my coach for the match, but after, I forget everything, and when I play a match and I don't have any thoughts in my head. So maybe I would say that my strength could be that I just play how I want to play and I do whatever I want to do, and maybe this helps me when I play.

Q. Maybe you forget when you're on court, but afterwards, do you remember, for instance, the way you played against Jasmine Paolini in Madrid, what happened there, and what you would like to do again in the same way or different?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yes, I remember our match in Madrid. I remember that it was tough. She played really good tennis, and I after was able to catch up a little bit. So yeah, I'm sure that it will a great match.

Yeah, we'll see what will happen tomorrow, but I'm of course really excited to play my first semifinal.

Q. I just wondered, when you're not playing, how much tennis do you watch? Do you like to watch a lot or do you prefer to just kind of cut yourself off from it?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I watch a lot of tennis. Even when I finish a day, for example, when I played against Vika, we finished at 2:00 a.m., I got to the hotel room at 3:00, and I still saw some reels on Instagram about tennis, I was like who is winning, who won, who lost. So I'm always trying to see the results and see some highlights of some matches.

So I don't think there was a day without tennis for me since I started playing, so yeah, I can say that I always watch some tennis.

Q. When you say that you're just playing on feel, is that shot to shot or point to point? Like, do you have a plan when you're going into each point, or are you just sort of seeing the ball and hitting the ball, depending on what's happening?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I would say shot to shot. So when, for example, she plays a forehand crosscourt, I have time to see where she's standing, where she kind of waits for my ball to go, and then I decide, well, what should I do? Should I go down the line or should I do cross, should I do a dropshot, should I do a lob? That's sometimes not really good because I have a lot of decisions in my mind. When I change them in the last moment, always some kind of crap happens (smiling).

So, yeah, sometimes it plays a bad joke with me, so I'm trying to keep it simple sometimes, but I cannot help it. Sometimes I just have too many decisions in my head.

But yeah, I would say that I play shot to shot mostly.

Q. Where do you spend most of your time? Where do you train with Conchi? How are you figuring this all out?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I live in Cannes in South of France. We work together for not a long time, for a couple of months only, and mostly was only tournaments.

But she came to Cannes for a couple of weeks for us to train together, to get used to each other. But yeah, she wants me to come to Spain sometimes, but I'm saying no, no, you will come to France, I will wait for you. But yeah, maybe one day I'll go to Spain. I like the country, so maybe. But I prefer her coming to Cannes.

Q. You're of course very young, you have not played a lot of tennis yet. Are you surprised at all? Does this feel early and sudden to you to get to the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament? Or did you expect this sort of thing? Does it feel like the timing is just what it should be?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I would say that I didn't really expect me playing semifinals tomorrow. Well, I played Gracheva a few days ago and I was, like, if I win the match I will be in quarterfinals, but then if I play Sabalenka and if I win I can be in semifinals. Wow, that could be a dream.

I'm actually, I will be playing semifinals tomorrow, and so my thoughts are kind of, they are kind of came true. So if we look back, I wouldn't expect myself playing semifinals, because that was just kind of a dream for me in the beginning of the tournament, but now I will be playing semifinals, so I've got to prepare for the match already (smiling).

Q. Could I ask you, this is maybe a difficult question, but what ways would you say you are a typical, normal 17-year-old kid? In what ways do you think that maybe you're different from most people your age?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I would say that I am almost like a normal teenager, because I still have to do my school that I don't like to do. I watch a lot of TV series on my spare time. I watch Netflix. I sometimes spend too much time on my Instagram, or I just do some crap when I'm at home. I laugh, I talk, and yeah, just doing some normal things.

But maybe what makes me a little different is that, I don't know if I can say that I'm mature, but I feel myself a mature person, and I feel that I know what I'm doing.

Yeah, I would say that maybe I'm a bit more mature.

Q. Obviously this is a great achievement for you, but if you think back to the months after you lost that very long girls singles final in Australia where you made massive progress, perhaps that was the biggest step. Could you talk a little bit about how you made that progress so that even this time last year we were looking out for you.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah. Well, if we look back to that match, that was very tough. I thought that I will need a lot of time to recover. I kind of used a couple of weeks to trying to settle my thoughts and my head down.

Yeah, after, I just kind of forgot about it, because my ex-coach at that time told me, well, maybe -- not maybe, but when you will be winning a lot of slams and when you will be on top, you will not even remember when you lost the Australian Open singles juniors final or to who you lost. But, I mean, I think I would remember this, but he kind of calmed myself down.

Yeah, after that, of course I needed a bit more time, but maybe it made me stronger, because I also knew that I would have a lot more offensive losses on the tour.

Yeah, I think that made me stronger in a mental way, so maybe that's good that it happened.

Q. You just said it was a surprise for you to be in semifinal, but anyway, you defeated the world No. 2 today. Your achieved it so it means that you did believe in it. Curious to know how you assess your potential, how you assess your ambition in tennis. Because, okay, it's a surprise on paper to see you in semifinal, but what you did today means you were ready to achieve it. How do you assess your potential now today?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Before the match, I was very nervous, and I just, my goal was to win more games than I won in Madrid. After I lost the first set 6-7, I was, like, well, now I have to go for the set at least to make it three sets. After, I just tried to play point by point and win as many points as I can.

Yeah, I would say that in the beginning I didn't really believe it, because, I mean, she's very experienced. She has two slams in her pocket. She's a great player, very aggressive. So, it was like, well, we'll see what will happen, but I'm not sure if I can do it, but I will just try to enjoy the atmosphere and try to play the best way I can.

After, when I won second set and I was up in the score in the third, I was, like, well, I'm closer. I'm getting closer to it. I'm really close to win. But the second I thought about that, I lost my serve and I lost her serve, so I was down in the score. So I just told myself, well, don't think about that ever again. Just play, because when you just play and you don't think about anything, you play the best.

So I just tried to turn off my mind and my thoughts and continued playing.