PARIS \u2014 Russian teenager\u00a0Mirra Andreeva\u00a0was already a tennis phenom at age 15.<\/p>\n
At 19, she\u2019s a Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n
The eighth-ranked Andreeva ended the run of 114th-ranked Polish qualifier\u00a0Maja Chwalinska\u00a0by 6-3, 6-2 in the French Open final on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Andreeva became the youngest player to win the women\u2019s singles title since Monica Seles, who was 18 when she landed her third straight French Open in 1992.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re so young and talented. It\u2019s so annoying,\u201d Chwalinska told Andreeva during the awards ceremony.<\/p>\n
Chwalinska was attempting to become the first qualifier to capture the Roland Garros title.<\/p>\n
When Andreeva executed a backhand cross-court winner on her first match point, she released her racket and dropped down onto the clay on her knees to celebrate as she covered her face with her hands.<\/p>\n
During the trophy presentation, Andreeva took the unusual step of thanking herself \u201cfor believing in myself, always giving my 100%, even when it\u2019s tough, trying every day to be better as a person and as a player, believing that I can do this, fighting so many demons inside of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly I know how tough it was for me,\u201d Andreeva added. \u201cHow nervous I was throughout these two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andreeva also thanked her psychologist, who she said was watching from Florida: \u201cEverything that you\u2019ve told me I\u2019ve been trying to use these two weeks, and I would say that it worked not bad. So thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andreeva was born in Siberia and moved to Sochi and eventually to France to develop her tennis career.<\/p>\n
She drew a loud applause from the crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier when she spoke a few words of French during the trophy presentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for your support today and over these past two marvellous weeks here in Paris,\u201d Andreeva said. \u201cIt was very important for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexander Zverev\u00a0plays\u00a0Flavio Cobolli\u00a0in the men\u2019s final on Sunday to conclude\u00a0the wildest Grand Slam\u00a0in recent memory.<\/p>\n
Andreeva has been considered a Grand Slam contender since she burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old at the 2023 Madrid Open, where she became the third youngest player to win a main draw match at a WTA 1000 tournament and made the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Lately, Andreeva has had to contend with playing under neutral status and without her country\u2019s flag due to the war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n
When she beat Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals, Kostyuk refused to shake her hand, as has been the custom for Ukrainian players facing Russians ever since the war started in 2022.<\/p>\n
Andreeva has gone a step further than her coach, Conchita Martinez, who lost the 2000 French Open final to Mary Pierce.<\/p>\n
Pierce presented the winner\u2019s trophy to Andreeva.<\/p>\n
The final was played under mostly sunny skies, but wind was a factor in the first Grand Slam final for both players.<\/p>\n
Chwalinska double-faulted on the opening point of the match, but she was the first player to hold serve in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
But then Andreeva won nine straight games to take control as she found a way to hit through the wind and answer Chwalinska\u2019s array of spins and drop shots.<\/p>\n
Andreeva produced 25 winners to Chwalinska\u2019s 10 and also had fewer unforced errors: 26 to 29.<\/p>\n
There was a strong Polish presence in the crowd.<\/p>\n
When Chwalinska was introduced, fans held aloft red-and-white Polish flags and chanted her name: \u201cMa-ja, Ma-ja.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andreeva had little support from the crowd, although there was a shout of \u201cDavai Mirra!\u201d (\u201cGo Mirra\u201d) in Russian late in the match.<\/p>\n
In men\u2019s doubles, top-seeded Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos retained their title with a 6-4, 6-2 win against second-seeded Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 Russian teenager\u00a0Mirra Andreeva\u00a0was already a tennis phenom at age 15. At 19, she\u2019s a Grand Slam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-719393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}