BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 5, 2025

Mirra Andreeva

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Mirra, welcome to Indian Wells. How are you feeling as the tournament starts after your win in Dubai?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, of course I'm excited to come back in Indian Wells. You know, last year for me wasn't really great, but I just hope that I can show some better results this year. I'm just super excited and can't wait for the tournament to start.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Now that you're almost 18 years old, and you've got a WTA 1000, been in the top 10, are you no longer an up-and-comer, or are you already here?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Okay. I don't know. You know, of course I'm going to be turning 18 soon, so, yes, I am becoming an old woman (smiling) unfortunately. So yeah. Well, I don't know if I can be, as you said, an up-and-comer, I have no idea. I don't know.

Q. Well, are you already here?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, of course, yes, I am. Of course I'm super excited to be here, but as I said, I'm becoming older and I hope smarter (smiling). Yeah.

Q. You're fresh off a title win in Dubai. How do you reset coming into a tournament like this?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I like to think that what happened happened, and of course after my win in Dubai, it felt amazing. I felt a lot of adrenaline, and I was of course super happy to win the tournament.

But now, you know, it's been almost two weeks now, I think maybe even more, and, you know, now I have to prepare for this tournament, I have to show my best tennis here, as well.

You know, I'm gonna also try to win this tournament and do my best here. You know, we're going to see what will happen.

But now I like to put Dubai not in the past but, you know, to kind of move on a little bit, because it's already happened, and, you know, we have to still prepare for next matches and next tournaments.

Q. Being a younger player on the tour, is there a special value in having someone like Conchita Martinez with you? Does she mentor you beyond the tennis court, but also, since she has so much experience with WTA?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yes, definitely she does. Of course it's super special to have her by my side.

I remember last year I saw her just walking around here, and, you know, at that time I didn't know her. So I just saw one woman always looking at me, you know, smiling, saying hi. I'm, like, okay, who is that? Why is she so friendly, why is she saying hi? After some time I realized it's Conchita Martinez, and then after, of course, I started to say hi back, started to be friendly.

After some time, I got a chance to try to work with her. Since then, since the first tournament that we had together, I just felt like I knew her for so long, and it just felt super natural to, you know, to be on the court with her and off the court, as well.

Already I think soon it's going to be one year as we worked together, and she has already gave me so many advices, and so much experience that she shared with me. So, you know, I hope that she feels the same way about this (smiling).

You know, of course it's very special for me to work with her, and I hope there are going to be many years for our relationship.

Q. What would you say is the biggest key to the growth you've had so far this season, the fact you've been able to win your biggest title. Is it mental, psychological, or more physical on-court stuff?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I think it's all together, because, well, if you're talented but, you know, you're not very strong mentally, you're not going to -- I think that you're not going to be at the top. If you're amazingly strong mentally but, I don't know, you're not super talented and maybe you get, I don't know, you get nervous at some important points, you know, I don't think that you can be, like, at the top of the top. So I think it's all together.

For me I have been working so hard on being strong mentally. Also we've been working with Conchita on improving my tennis, you know, at the baseline, my serve, volleys. I think the hard work paid off.

You know, of course we're going to continue working and getting better. But I would say that for me, I have been working on everything super hard, and I would say that all those three aspects combined, I think that was the key for me.

Q. You started playing doubles with Diana Shnaider last year at the Olympics. How has that gone? Are you excited to keep playing doubles throughout the year? Are you playing with her at this tournament?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yes, we're playing here, as well. You know, the reason we didn't play Dubai was not because we decided to, you know, have rest. It's because we forgot to sign (smiling). It's been our second time, our second mistake like this already. So we're both going to continue improving with that.

But, yeah, I'm super excited to play doubles with her. I feel like we have great chemistry on the court, and we have fun playing doubles with each other.

So we're going to continue playing big tournaments, and then we're going to, you know, talk and see which tournaments we want to play, which tournaments we just want to take some rest and play only singles.

Yeah. Of course, I hope that she's also having fun with me on the court. But yeah, I do, and I hope that we're gonna continue to have fun and to play great together.

Q. Following that title, you were talking about Conchita, what was your conversation with like with her in terms of what did she say about what you accomplished and also what she wants to see you do next?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, of course at first she was super proud of me, and we had a nice moment after the match. After I did my media and, you know, we did the recovery and cooldown, and we just went to the restaurant to have some dinner and, you know, to talk. We wanted to talk and to see what I felt on the court. I also was curious what she felt, was she nervous during the match and how she felt during the final.

So we spent a nice time talking, and, you know, seeing what both of us felt during the final.

You know, first thing she told me, she's, like, Mirra, I'm super proud of you, well done. I was also super thankful to her because she did some nice and good work with me during the week in Dubai and overall.

I know that I can be tough sometimes, but, you know, she was strong and she was also, you know, super understandable and supportive in that way.

So, yeah, for now, she didn't tell me what she wants me to do, because we are working and we are gonna keep growing, but I don't know. I don't know what she wants me to do, and we're gonna see. I'm going to ask her that, actually. Yeah, we're going to see about that.

Q. Was she nervous watching you?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah, she was (smiling). I actually told her that her face was very calm from the court. If I looked at her, I wouldn't say that she was nervous. But then she told me I started, it was 0-2, Love-30, so she was, like, hmm, it's not the best start. Okay, we're gonna see. I wouldn't say that she was nervous but she said that she was, and then after of course the nerves just flew away and she felt okay during the match.

Q. Congratulations. Two quick kind of tough questions. If you had to say the one best quality of you as a tennis player, what would that be? If you could win one slam, one of the slams, which slam would you like to win most?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: If I win a slam, for me, it doesn't matter, because, you know, all the slams are great. Just to have one slam is great, so I don't really care which one.

But, you know, of course it would be nice to win them all, but for me, it doesn't really matter. You know, if I have a slam, I have a slam. You know, it's okay.

About the first question, I don't know. Maybe if I have an answer, I'm not gonna tell you, because what if, you know, other players are watching, and I'm going to say, you know, I think I'm super good at, you know, moving on the court, then maybe they're going to play in the middle and they're not going to move me. I think it could be good if I'm not gonna move, but I'm gonna keep that to myself.

Q. No one pays any attention to the media. (Laughter.)

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, what if?

Well, I think that I'm okay player from the baseline. I try to improve my volley game by playing a lot of doubles. I start to feel a bit more confident, you know, playing at the net and going into the net while I play singles. I try to do that a bit often, and I try to force myself also to come forward and to finish some shots at the net.

You know, I have been working on a lot of stuff. I have been working on serving. I have been working on, you know, being a little bit more aggressive. Also, trying to defend better.

So I don't know, because we're still working on some stuff. So that's going to be it.

Q. What did you know about Conchita before you started working together? And have you watched her Wimbledon final?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I did watch her Wimbledon final only when we already started working together. But honestly, before -- of course I knew who Conchita Martinez was, but if I would see her just outside on the streets, I wouldn't say, Oh, that's Conchita Martinez, because I wouldn't know her face pretty good.

That's why I was, like, who is this woman always smiling and staring at me? But of course I heard the name before. Then after we started working together, I watched the final of her when she won at Wimbledon. So, you know, I told her. Then she got a little bit red. You know, I think she was happy that I watched the final. You know, she played not bad, actually.

Yeah, good for her, but yeah, of course, I watched some more matches of her playing when she lost in the semifinal in some other slam, I don't remember, and she was, like, Oh, no, don't watch that match, no. But I did anyway.

She played great, I would say (smiling).